Unwanted or Unheard: Project Olympus
by Paradox Blade
Summary: A month after the Human-Heartless conflict, Sora finds himself imprisoned, but with help from a mysterious power outage and a few others like him, he struggles to get free. But he wonders if being a hero is actually worth it. And now, with the Twilight Republic forming a Meta-Human army that could threaten the world's superpowers and cause a WW3, he has to make his choice quickly.
1. Chapter 1: Gods Among Us

Hey guys! Hope everyone had fun stuffing their faces in. I may be a little fat right now but I will never be too fat to produce this sequel!

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Wingdom Blearts! *cough* *cough* Sorry, I'm a little sick. *ahem* I do not own Kingdom Hearts.

Warning: For those who have not read Unwanted or Unheard, I advised you to read that first. But if you want to read this instead then I guess you will continue to read this story while being angry and confused XD

**Alright, just a warning here, there may be the occasional "coarse coarse" language so if you don't like the occasional F-Word or B-Word please just don't read this.**

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**Chapter One: Gods Among Us**

There was great tension in the air as researchers in white lab coats ran to and from work stations to work stations, collecting documents, formulas, and making sure that everything was filed in order.

The walls of the bustling lab were light grey along with the floor which was actually so clean that anyone could look down and see their reflection.

A scientist with thick, wavy blonde hair and green eyes that carried stacks of papers brushed past his co-workers briskly while hastily saying, "E-Excuse me! Pardon me!" He was in such a hurry that his elbow accidentally bumped against a cup full of coffee, causing it to spill onto the floor.

A female researcher with black, pony-tailed hair was following right behind her colleague when the spilled brown liquid caused her to trip and fall onto her back with a loud thud, her head hitting the cold, tile floor.

The blond researcher looked back and noticed she was sprawled out on the floor, "Penelope!" He cried while putting the stacks of paper on a nearby busy-bodied scientist's desk.

His writing was interrupted by the sudden column of papers that were stacked right on top of his paperwork; disgruntled and cranky, he looked over the stack, "What the fuck, Hawkins?!"

"Watch that for me will ya?" He requested before jogging over to assist the downed raven-haired woman.

He crouched down and held his hand out to her, "Are you okay…?"

She groaned and rubbed her head in pain, adjusting her black glasses so that they were over her cobalt blue eyes once again. She looked up at her friend and gave him a reassuring smile, "Yeah… I'm fine, Derrick-" Her bottom felt wet so she looked down and noticed that she was sitting in a puddle of coffee, "Awww, dammit! That's the second time this week!" She cursed while getting up all by her lonesome.

Underneath her lab coat she wore a blue-green shirt with a brown skirt, the back of it being soaked with coffee.

"Well look on the bright side, 'Mrs. Clumsy', your skirt is brown." Derrick noted, cackling at her.

Penelope narrowed her eyes at him but then crossed her arms and had more of a relaxed expression, "You're one to talk, 'Baron von towards Bed-wetter'." She countered.

Derrick gasped while the other scientists within earshot snickered. Taken aback by the sudden comeback, he glared at her and spoke in a hushed tone, "Hey! You said that you would never mention that again! We were in the woods and...I just... I just had a bad case of the willies okay?"

She put her finger on her chin and her eyes darted to the ceiling, making it look like she was deep in thought. Soon she stopped and looked at him, "I don't remember promising that~" She sang in an oh-so-matter-of-factly tone.

"Hawkins! Can you please get your papers off my desk? I am _trying_ to work here!" The annoyed scientist that Derrick had left his stack of papers with asked while pointing at said stack.

Just when he was about to form another comeback against Penelope, he decided to be the mature one in their conversation and walk away, grabbing his papers and heading towards the automatic door that had three white triangles that made a bigger triangle with a circle in the center.

After Penelope finished cleaning herself up, she joined Derrick at the door and a circular mini-scanner that was suspended from the top of the large white door scanned the card with a blue beam coming out of it that traced the card before dissipating.

The two doors suddenly separated into two and slid open.

_Staff confirmed, Penelope Iris Stafford and Derrick Alexander Hawkins._

Penelope gave her nose a scratch as they rushed through the opening and through the bustling hallways, "Sometimes I wonder why those things always say our full names. It sounds…weird…"

"Geez, Iris, I thought you would have gotten used to that after a month of walking through that door every single day."

"Well, excuse me for not being used to a machine saying my full name…"

"You're excused." Derrick declared as they just barely got into the elevator before it closed.

With the blond, of course, having his hands full, Penelope went over to the buttons and selected floor 25. As the elevator began its descent, the two friends casually leaned against the railing and listened to the bland elevator music as it played.

Penelope bobbed her head to the music for a few moments but then she looked at him and felt the need to spark up another conversation, curios as to why Derrick was running, "So, why the rush?"

"…You're joking right? You forgot what day it is?"

"Sloppy Joe day in the cafeteria? Ooh, with nachos?" She responded with hope gleaming in her eyes.

"No! Aaron Sharpe is visiting here today to see how our research is coming along and you and me are supposed to show him the Meta-Humans."

"Oh, that snarky owner of Galaxia Incorporated? If you ask me, that guy needs to take the stick out of his-"

Before she could finish her sentence, the elevator came to a stop and there was a 'ding' sound. The doors flew open and they bolted straight out of it, made a left, and sprinted down the long white hallway with tile floors (Derrick, of course, having to pick up some papers that fell off the stack.)

He caught up with her after fumbling around a bit, "So you know what you are doing, right?"

"Yes, _Mom,_I have to pwesent the wesearch to the old gowerment people." She recalled with a childish voice.

Soon they had reached their destination, conference room B-11. Penelope opened the door and flipped the switch, activating the fluorescent lights. The walls room was red and black, the ebony dominating while there were three horizontal crimson neon lines that went along the walls. In the middle the middle of the dark colored room was a brown, long, oval-shaped desk made of rich wood. Set on the table were cups filled with pens, empty clipboards, and a highly advanced black digital tablet. Gathered around the table were nice, comfy black chairs that could spin 360 degrees.

Also, on the wall opposite of the door was bulletproof glass that gave the occupants of the room a good view of Cell Block A.

Guards armed with the XM8 series of assault rifles and compact carbines patrolled the area, walking to and fro, past the cells that didn't have the traditional vertical bars but rather vertical electrical fences and a cascade of blue, horizontal laser beams.

Penelope rushed over to one of the seats and sat down, pushing herself away from the desk and doing a few 360's with her chair, finally stopping when she was facing her busy-bodied blond co-worker, who sat across from her.

"Alright, what am I going to say? Ummm...Hello, Mr. Sharpe! It's good to see you today!-No, too cheery... err... good morning, Mr. Sharpe, welcome to Project Olympus- No, he's already been here once before." Derrick babbled while putting the stack of papers on the table, clearly under a lot of unnecessary pressure.

Penelope rolled her eyes at him, leaning forward and putting her left elbow on her desk and using her hand to support her head, "Keep acting like that and you'll end up just like Death the Kid before ya know it."

He noticed one of the papers wasn't stack neatly with the others so he adjusted it a bit. Once his adjustment was to his liking, he looked at her, "...Death the Kid? What?"

She gasped and whipped back into her seat, "You don't know who Death the Kid is? Have you been paying attention to your son, 'Rick? Him and my niece mention him like, I dunno, all the freakin' time!" She pointed out, executing another 360 degree spin in her chair.

"Yeah, but I thought Soul Eater was one of those religious cults that Milo was being dragged into or- Agh!" He put his hands on his head," How did we get on this subject?! We're supposed to be talking about the presentation!" He exclaimed and huffed, crossing his arms when he saw her giggling at his tantrum.

For some reason, she always knew how to get to him. Ever since they met in college, she had often annoyed him just for the fun of it. But when they had graduated, they had went their separate ways, both their lives kept them busy so they lost contact, but ever since they were hired by the government and were brought to this research facility, the two friends were brought back together again.

"Now, what was I going to say to him and the others? Uh-"

Suddenly, the door was opened, revealing none other than Aaron Sharpe, who's sideburns and mustache had been shaved off. The millionaire's sudden entrance, along with his secretary, Jessica Hale, startled Derrick, causing the blond to rise out of his seat abruptly and reflexively blurt out, "Good morning, Mr. Sharpe! Welcome to Project Olympus!" He greeted, adding in a salute at the end.

Aaron grinned, "Relax, my boy. No need to salute to me. As a matter of fact, who we should be saluting to is our brave troops for all the sacrifices they have made." He began, sitting down in the nearest seat as four men armed with MP7A1 sub-machine-guns, clad in protective kevlar armor from head to toe entered the room, each one of them going to one of the four corners of the room and facing the table. "But today is a new day, and hopefully, with time, the DNA from these experiments will open up new possibilities and will be a great benefit to humanity." He added as top-tier government officials, most of them from the Department of Defense, and scientists entered the room and filled the remaining seats.

Penelope rolled her eyes at Sharpe's statement as a now sweaty Derrick handed her a paper that had a list of names on it; specifically the names of the people down there in the cell block.

She scanned the list that she had made a few hours ago and saw that everything was in order. "Alrighty then, let's get this show on the road." Penelope said while getting up and walking over towards the window, facing the audience.

The lights dimmed and a digital cerulean holographic screen materialized behind her. Rows upon rows of digital code darted across the screen until she tapped the tablet with her pen and the numbers disappeared, the screen now being replaced with a list of names in white and some being red.

Four names came up.

**Hermes.**

**Zeus.**

**Apollo.**

**Hades.**

There were yellow lights flashing in the cell block and all the guards exited. After they did, the floor divided in two, revealing two tracks. Room B-11 began to gradually descend until it was locked onto the tracks, then it brushed forth and the walls on all four sides divided, revealing more bullet-proof windows. As the room gradually sailed along the tracks, the first cell in the cell block came into view on the left-hand side.

A teen with short, tousled brown hair, dark brown eyes and an olive skin tone could be seen lying down on his bed clad in regular clothing: a white shirt with a blue lightning bolt on it, black jeans, and blue and white sneakers that had blue lightning bolts on the sides. On both his wrists were white wrist-bands with blue lightning bolts on them. He was currently reading a Soul Eater manga that he requested from the guards, not really focused on the people who were viewing him.

The screen showed a brain wave frequency chart, the line on the chart going up and down diagonally and rapidly. Next to it appeared a live x-ray of the boy's skeleton that showed his every movement. Above the skeletal chart was the name 'Hermes'.

Suddenly, the boy began to flip the pages rapidly and the readings on the chart sped up as well.

Eventually, his hand and the pages turned into a blur until he reached the end of the book in only a matter of mere seconds. He was reading the book so fast that the skeletal chart and the brain wave chart couldn't even keep up with him.

Everyone stared at the boy in awe of this amazing feat. Sure, anyone (well, almost anyone) on this green earth could speed-read but reading at those speeds was physically impossible.

"Now for the next one..." said Hermes while grabbing another book from the massive pile near him and once again reading through it page-by-page in only a couple of seconds.

"As you can see, his metabolism has been accelerated to an outstanding level along with his brain activity. A level so high in fact, that the scanners can't even track it. Also, he is highly resistant to weight gain. But this also means he might require large amounts of food."

The government agents nodded and spoke to each other in agreement while Aaron leaned back in his chair and rubbed his his chin in thought, smiling.

"Yo, speedy! No one is impressed by Cock Eater! Read a real book instead of reading stuff about cartoon porn!"

Hermes growled and threw his comic against wall while rising up off his bed, "For the last time, Roy... it's Soul Eater and it's not cartoon porn. It's _Anime_. And _this,_ for your information," He picked up the book, "Is a manga, ass-for-brains."

The mobile room traveled onward past Hermes' cell until another one came into view, containing a teen with a lean but muscular build.

His hair was blonde and spiky and his eyes were indigo. He wore an orange sleeveless shirt (to show off his muscles), a brown belt, black jeans, and red and white shoes. Wrapped around both his forearms down to his wrists were white bandages that stopped just short of his grey finger-less gloves.

Instead of electricity, his cell was gated with concrete bars and rubber tied around it. The gate could easily be lifted at the flick of a switch but the switch was nowhere near the cell but rather in the control room.

"Manga, shmanga! It all burns the same!" He retorted then continued, "Like I said before, speed-reading isn't so great. Ooooh, big and bad Zach can speed-read us to death! I'm sooo scared!" He said in a mocking tone then looked at his audience, "Forget 'Mr. Cartoon Porn' over there, he's all talk!" Roy stated while slamming his fist into palm.

The moment he did, the light above him cracked and a wave of electricity washed down onto him, the voltage being the only thing illuminating his cell. He walked toward the wall to his right and generated an electro-magnetic aura around him, the static electricity aiding him in scaling up the wall and clinging to the ceiling. Pretty much, the metallic interior was his tiny little playground.

Once again, the government officials were flabbergasted as they saw him wave at them while upside down.

A particular female, who's mouth was hung open, meekly waved back.

"Zeus' blood cells contain ions at an unstable rate, giving him Electrolytic Blood. In theory, his blood has the potential to turn from liquid to plasma energy. He can also absorb electricity and his blood cells can act as a storage unit for the excess electric currents."

"_Hey!_" The electro-kinetic teen yelled, the electricity around him dissipating, leaving the living battery in the dark, "...Can you at least repair the lights?"

"We're stuck in a prison, and all you can think about is entertaining government suits?!" Zach blurted out from afar.

The intercom sounded, "Hey! Keep it quiet down there!" A guard ordered.

The tour continued onward and the next cell appeared, inside the glass cell was a 10-year-old tan-skinned boy with short, wavy, copper red hair. He sat in the corner, his head in his knees and his face obscured from view. He wore a brown hoodie with blue jeans and white shoes.

Once again, the screen flickered and it showed the cell's temperature which read -20 degrees Fahrenheit, along with the name 'Apollo.'

The scarlet-haired lad shivered and lifted his face up, exhaling a puff of fire from his mouth.

Everyone (except Aaron Sharpe and the guards plus a select few government officials) observed the boy with looks of sorrow. If only they knew the kind of suffering that came with being on that side of the glass. Sure, everyone who works at Project Olympus gets to work, then go back to their homes, to their families.

But for the humans behind those bars…

This was home now.

The improvised train had reached the end of the cell block and a coy smile formed upon Sharpe's lips, "Mr. Hawkins, now that you and Mrs. Stafford have shown us the already accustomed Metas, how about you show us the most recent catch?" Aaron suggested, tapping the table with his fingers in a rhythmic manner.

Derrick pushed a button that was cleverly hidden under the conference table.

What was thought to be a wall was actually a secret door. The government agents looked towards the front and through the window in awe as the two parts of the door divided, through the gap could be seen a large blue capsule.

From where they were sitting, they could only see a human silhouette of a teen with spiky hair.

The tracks continued onward past the door, towards the direct front of the large containment unit. The interior of the room was a boring grey. There were wires and coils spread all around, some of the wires going into the machine.

As the train got closer to the capsule, the boy came into focus. His skin was jet black along with his hair and his eyes were yellow but you couldn't see them because he was asleep in the chamber. Unlike the other meta-humans, this one seemed to retain it's normal clothing.

He sported a Mickey-Mouse style outfit which was the same color as his skin and his hair. It consisted of large shoes, an over-jacket as well as a jumpsuit that came with baggy pants. He also wore finger-less gloves and a rather interesting crown necklace.

Labeled on the capsule was the word 'Hades.'

Aaron observed Hades, rising up out of his seat and walking towards the window to get a better look at the boy. "This is excellent, just excellent. One can only imagine all the possibilities..." He thought out loud, not noticing Derrick who stood next to him.

"We haven't really found out much about Hades except that there seems to be dark particles resonating inside him. Our researchers have yet to find anything worth talking about."

The millionaire suddenly gave the chief researcher a disgruntled look, obviously not satisfied with his report, "No, that can't be it. There's more to this one than meets the eye. You may have not seen it, Mr. Hawkins, but this boy," He pointed at the subject, "Fell from outer space after that white flash. And what we know currently is that he bears a close resemblance those creatures that attacked Twilight City a month ago. "

"Okay, but-" Derrick tried to say but was interrupted by him.

"But, you're not seeing the big picture here. We have already developed proto-blades from what our scientists perceive as a 'keyblade' when Project Black-Watch was initiated. When they were deployed into the combat zone, they had proven most ineffective in battle, adding to the thousands that were slaughtered."

"..."

He sighed then turned to the government agents, "What I am trying to say is that we need a more effective way to combat threats like this should they arise again. Twilight City was left in ruins... who's to say that the same thing won't happen to Hollow Bastion? What I am suggesting is that we strengthen our Department of Defense-"

Suddenly, there was a loud slam on the conference table and all eyes were on Penelope who was standing there with her fists balled up on the table, "Are you crazy?! If we start making an army of Meta-Humans then this could start up chaos in the United Nations if this goes public. What if our allies, USA, Japan, China, Britain, and Russia will go into panic?" Penelope fumed, but quickly regained her composure.

"Your hypothesis is one to take into consideration, Mrs. Stafford, but this could be a great benefit to humanity. Not only will new medicine be developed but also martial strength. Previous...'attempts' are still being worked out..." He paused, his eyes darting to the massive black cloth on the left hand side that shrouded something mysterious underneath. On it was a red diamond with the black bold letters '**Sp**' inside the diamond.

Penelope grumbled, "Yeah, but-"

Suddenly, there was a crackle of electricity and the lights went out. Inside the train there was mass confusion, Jessica let out a scream and the government officials had risen up out of their seats and looked around frantically, and wondering just what the hell was going on.

"What in the sam hell is going on here?!" One of the people from the Department of Defense said.

"Everyone just remain calm. The backup power should be on in a few minutes." Derrick explained as the guards that were in the four corners illuminated the room with the tactical flashlights mounted on the side of their MP7's.

"Yeah, everything is under con-" She jumped when she heard a breaking of glass on the left-hand side, "trol?"

An agent quickly got on his communicator while walking over to a window and shining his flashlight through it, seeing nothing but powered down machinery and wires, "High Ground this is Tarsus 3. Be advised, we might have a security breach down in Cell Block A. How copy, over?"

_'Good copy, Tarsus. Security is on its way, out.'_

He was so busy talking on the radio that he was caught unaware when a pair of yellow eyes swooped down right in front of the glass. A fist burst through with great force and grappled the man by his tie, pulling him right out of the train and into the darkness.

The witnesses could only cower as they heard the man's screams of agony and the cracking of his bones.

"Dammit!" One of the commandos cursed while moving over to the window with one of his teammates while the other stood back at the table to protect everyone.

They scanned the area with their flashlights, until they found their comrades body on the cold, steel floor a few feet away from the tracks.

"No sign of target-" The other operator said but corrected himself when he pointed his gun upwards, the flashlight locating Hades who was clinging to the wall, snarling and protecting his face from the sudden light.

"_Target is moving above us!_" He announced while firing at the dark human.

The agile boy dodged the bullets rather easily, crawling around and dodging the bullets as they embedded themselves into the wall. The muzzle flash from the MP7 lit up the room and created pulsating shadows each time it fired. He hopped down onto the mysterious brown cloth but only to leap back up onto the wall again with a forward flip, narrowly dodging a volley of projectiles.

Just when the commando was about to reload, he was knocked down by Sharpe.

"You simpleton! Are you trying to destroy Project SP?! Do you realize how much money was invested in that-" He rolled his eyes when he realized that he had knocked the wind out of the guard and picked up his weapon and took a magazine out from one of his pouches.

Aaron Sharpe, although he looked like a white-collar, was very proficient in modern-day weaponry. Back when Destiny Island was having problems with the local militia and the Twilight Army doing Joint Operations with the British Special Air Service and the Russian Spetsnaz GRU to find assassinate their leader, Dante Volkner, who was believed to be in supplying weapons to the Taliban in Afghanistan. Aaron was enlisted in the Twilight Army and made it up to the rank of sergeant, earning a silver star before accepting an honorable discharge.

Now he's 42 years old and is the head of one of the most prestigious research conglomerates with limitless resources. It's only a matter of time until he starts buying out jobs in Hallow Bastion.

"Come on out you miscreant…the sooner we get you back into your pod, the sooner we can get on with the experiments."

The 'miscreant' hopped down in front of the train and Aaron opened fire the moment he saw him. He veered left and right, hopping over the sparks created by the bullets. Some of the rounds came so close to his head that he had to use his momentum to slide forward to stop the bullets from hitting him in the head.

Aaron tried to shoot again but the magazine was empty. He looked at the gun, then at the charging Meta in panic.

"Oh poop."

Everyone inside the train was knocked down to the floor as the teen slammed right into the train and rocked the whole vehicle. There were intense screeches and red sparks that jumped off the track as he forced it back, past the secret door, and through Cell Block A.

"Alright, it's go time!" Roy said excitedly as him and Zach stepped out of their now open cells cells and onto the tiny bit of floor next to the tracks as the lights turned back on. The scarlet-haired boy pounded his palm with his fist, blue electricity still radiating off of him and his eyes glowing blue.

Zach smirked in response, not afraid of the electrolytic male, "Make a move, sparky." He replied while walking up to him, the two meeting each other face to face.

And just when they were about to cut to blows, they noticed the train about to blow past them and quickly got up against the wall.

They watched as it bumped right into the wall at the end of the cell block. The evil-looking boy leaped on it then hopped up to the opening. where the conference room once was.

"Whoa…" Zack and Roy remarked in unison, their eyes as wide and their bodies hunched over with their mouths agape. The both of them looked at each other then exchanged nods, validating their temporary truce.

"I guess capsule-boy picked a great time to stretch his legs." Roy commented.

The two super-powered humans were about to follow Hades' lead when they heard an explosion that came from the secret laboratory.

They turned around and saw a large funnel of smoke coming from the secret door. The sealing door to a capsule was suddenly hurled through the smoke, it landed on the floor and bounced a few times, flipping through the air until it came to a stop in front of the boys.

They inspected it, only to see the word '**Ares**' labeled on it in red.

Out of the smoke emerged a male with a light-brown skin tone looked like he was 16-years old, standing roughly 7 feet tall. He had short, black hair that with a widow's peak, a muscular physique and blazing red eyes with no irises.

He wore a skin-tight black garment that had a diamond with the letters 'SP' printed on his chest. The leg part of the suit was tucked into dark-brown combat boots.

As they looked down his body, they noticed that his right arm wasn't actually an arm but an elongated razor-sharp, double edged blade that formed from the base of his elbow.

"Wow, I guess the surgeons here really don't know the difference between an arm and a sword. Ah, the world of medicine. What are you gonna do?" Zach commented.

Roy gave a lively grimace and enthusiastically got into a fighting stance as he unleashed the electricity that was stored inside him, galvanizing himself with the blue voltage.

Ares suddenly let out a roar of primal rage and blood-lust, dashing towards the spiky-haired blond briskly with his blade at the ready.

The electrolytic blond responded to this act of aggression by charging towards him headstrong. As he ran, he could feel the ions circulating in his bloodstream, the electric currents being directed to his nerves and stimulating them, greatly enhancing his physical abilities beyond that of a human being.

He felt an impulse in his body that was telling him to duck. He could see the blade coming towards him, ready to separate his head from his shoulders.

He managed to duck before it could even touch him and he rose up to deliver a thundering punch right to his face which knocked him down to the ground.

Roy was about to pounce on him but Ares reacted quick enough to use his feet to kick him away, sending him flying towards the train that rested against the walls.

Inside the room, everyone was recovering from the concussive force the rocked the whole train and sent everybody either down to the floor or into a wall. The seats were knocked down, scattered all over along with numerous white sheets of paper and documents.

Derrick and Jessica were sitting next to the glass window, rubbing his head when Roy came bursting through it, falling on the table with a loud thud as Derrick pounced on Jessica and shielded her from the glass.

Aaron rose up and looked through the hole in the glass and gasped, his eyes wide open at the sight of Ares, "The weapon..." He whipped around and gave a stern look at one of down and dazed special operatives.

He crouched down and grabbed the man by the straps on his body armor, bringing him close to his face, "Sergeant, why is Project Sparta out of his pod? Where is security?! Why aren't you and your team stopping him?!-" He stopped his rant when he noticed that the sergeant was already unconscious.

With a dejected look he let go of the operator, his helmeted head hitting the floor with a significant thud.

Outside the cart, Zach laughed when he looked at the downed Roy before looking back at Ares, his red glare causing his laughter to cease and turn into a cough, "Oh...uh-oh."

Suddenly, two red beams came out of his eyes and traveled straight towards the ground where the brunet stood and it caused a fiery explosion.

As the smoke cleared, he saw that Zach was no longer there. He was just about to walk forward when he saw him whimsically leaning against the wall that occupied the space in between two cells on the right.

Zach simply gave him a mock smile and a wave, "Hi there!"

Ares glared at him and used his heat vision again but the moment he did, he saw a white and blue blur move away from the blast caused by the beams and over to another spot on the tracks.

Zach stood there with one hand on his hip, giving him a disgruntled look, "What have I told you about shooting lasers out of your eyes in the house, young man? That is rude, ignorant-"

Now the burly meta-human was getting frustrated. While ignoring Zach's scolding, he growled focused again, his crimson eyes flashing-

"...Aaand, this conversation is over." Zach said hastily.

_Tsew! (laser)_

_Zoom!_

_Tsew!_

_Tsew!_

_Tsew!_

A series of explosions followed afterward, lagging behind the white and blue blur as he sped around the whole area until he came to a sudden stop just a few feet away from the rage-filled boy then began to sprint towards him-

_Tsew!_

From his perception, it looked like everything was in slow motion. He could see the mahogany beam in mid-air, traveling towards him from Ares' very eyes. He swiftly jerked to the left, narrowly avoiding the ray as it passed just inches away from his cheek.

He then ducked under it and veered off to the slightly to the right only to come to a sudden stop and slam his left fist right into Ares' gut.

Zach yelped and wagged his left hand rapidly in pain, "Ow! What the hell?"

The brown-skinned giant towered above the speedster as he watched him sprint around him, dishing out a series of punches but having no effect on him.

Finally getting annoyed by the brown-haired speedster's antics, he whipped his blade outwards to the right.

With increased perception, Zach gasped as he saw the blade coming toward him and he arched backwards, the cold organic steel passing by just inches above his nose.

Zach then made a U-turn and Ares counter-attacked with a barrage of slashes once he got in range, the speedster dodging the rapid swipes tediously.

_Damn! Punching this guy is like punching a brick wall!- _Zach thought as jumped over a horizontal slice that was aimed at his legs, then he sidestepped a vertical slice.

At that moment, the brunet remembered the page-turning he was doing and how the pages moved quickly when he sped up his arm, as he did this, he glared up at Ares while dodging his blows.

_Force equals mass times acceleration, that means if I can accelerate my arm, I might generate enough force to hurt him! That...or I could brake my hand- okay, one more try, it might hurt like hell, but getting stabbed is a lot worse. _He conjugated while stealing a quick glance at his right arm.

The quick-thinking runner ducked a high horizontal blow and leaped forward, accelerating his right arm and driving his fist straight toward Ares' face. There was a sudden electric spark, a field of kinetic energy that surrounded his fist like an aura of some sort as it impacted.

The raven-haired male grunted staggered back a bit, his hand on his face as he felt the pain from that extremely powerful punch go all the way to his skull.

Once he recovered from the blow and took his hands off his face-

_Whoosh!_

One second he saw a white and blue blur whirling straight at him, then next second-

_Bam!_

He felt an overwhelming force strike his face again, the impact so powerful that he went crashing to the ground, sliding away a few feet.

Zach streaked into the secret laboratory moreover he bolted right back out, stopping right by Ares and standing over him in both triumph and astonishment as the kinetic energy around his fist dissipated, "I-I can't believe that worked...!"He cheered, pumping his fist in celebration of his achievement-

"Freeze!" A brusque voice blurted out.

Roy, who's clothes were now tattered and had a few cuts across his face had recovered from Ares' powerful kick and leaped out of the train through the broken glass, "Huh?" He looked in the direction that the voice came from and saw heavily-armored security guards scaling down the wall from the square opening that the mobile conference room descended down from.

All of them aimed their assault rifles at the meta-humans.

"Oh! Good! Hey, guys? Can you put Chuckles here back in his cage?" Zach said while jerking a thumb at Ares who was now getting up, as angry as ever.

"Hey! We're not finished here!" Roy said, charging at Ares once again in sheer impatience. The electricity that was stimulating his nerves not only gave him enhanced strength, but a small burst of speed. (Nowhere near as fast as Zach but still speed nonetheless.)

Before Ares could even react, he sent a surge of electricity through the steel of his organic blade, acting as a conductor as it transferred to his body.

Ares roared in sheer rage walloping the speedster and the electrolytic boy aside, both of them hitting a wall.

Then he leaped up towards the guards while they shot at him, their bullets ricocheting off his chest. One of the projectiles hit him in the face and it only bopped his head back a bit.

* * *

Ignoring the sounds of gunfire that echoed from the cell block, Hades dashed down the white halls briskly, bursting right through security guards and manhandling them with relative ease.

A voice suddenly sounded in his head-_ 'Hey, do you even know where you're going?'_

'_No one likes a back-seat driver, Aros. Give Sora some slack, we all just woke up and no one wants to hear your bitchin.'- _Another voice replied, being more dark than the other one.

_And no one likes it when there is so much talking that they can barely even think.- _Sora replied, vaulting over a guard that was about to shoot him with his XM8.

Before the armed man could turn around, Sora dropped down and executed a low sweep kick, taking the man's legs out from under him and making him fall with a loud thud.

And to make sure he didn't cause anymore trouble, Sora took his assault rifle away from him and bludgeoned his face with the butt of the assault rifle, knocking him unconscious before breaking the gun in half and throwing the pieces off to the side.

The intercom chimed in.

**Power down the elevators! Don't let them escape!**

A large amount of footsteps could be heard coming from the end of the hallway.

"This way! Quickly! Zeta squad needs help!"

Sora looked around frantically, his options getting thinner and thinner by the seconds as the footsteps got louder and louder.

Finally, he looked up and noticed that there was a hatch attached to the white ceiling that led to the ventilation system. Swiftly, he leaped up there, clinging to the ceiling while opening up the hatch.

A platoon of sentries quickly rounded the corner and aimed down the hallway only to see other unconscious guards scattered on the floor.

"Alright, here's what we are going to do. Sigma and Beta, move forward to Cell Block A to reinforce Zeta. Foxtrot, rally with me, we'll secure the rest of this floor and flush out the straggler." The leader of the group asserted.

"Or stragglers." Another operator inquired.

"Right, Onyx 5, move out."

Little did they know that they were being surveyed by a pair of yellow eyes that stared down at them condescendingly through the gaps of an overhead hatch. After the last guard passed by, Sora smirked triumphantly and began his journey on all fours through the vent, preferably in the opposite direction of which the guards were running.

Suddenly, there was a rumbling sound and Sora inched towards another hatch and looked through it only to see multiple guards retreating only to get knocked down abruptly by a blonde Caucasian boy who was fighting with an amber-skinned male.

Just as they where about clash again, a spiky-haired blond suddenly got in between them, separating the two before they could cause anymore damage to each other, "Alright, the both of you, chill! As much fun as it is to beat the living crap out of each other, we should really get out of here!" He exclaimed, glancing at the both of them for any signs of aggression.

They both paused and exchanged glares, Roy panting heavily as all the voltage around him was reduced to mere sparks. On the other hand, Ares was breathing normally, although there were a few wear-and-tears around the shoulder and torso areas.

Zach sighed then turned to Ares, having to look up at him just to make eye contact, "Listen, I don't know who you are but my gut feeling is tellin' me that you don't like being here either. So I propose that we all work together and once we get out of this building, then you can beat up Roy." He held out his left hand to him, "Truce?"

The black-haired boy gave him a mean look but eventually it morphed into a blank expression, the red glow in his eyes faded away, revealing pale green irises and his organic blade reverted back into a normal human hand. He then shook the brunet's hand with that very same hand.

"What's your name?" Asked Zach, who was still staring at his hand.

Ares let go of his hand and frowned, "...I don't know what my name is..."

"What?! You don't even know your own fucking name?!" Roy remarked harshly, surprised by his statement.

"All I remember is waking up and bashing my way out of that pod that I was in. There were these flashes of memories that rushed through my mind, disturbing memories of people and soldiers being killed in a flaming city... and for some reason, I was firing a gun and ordering others around until an explosion occurred."

"Okay, you were in Twilight City during the war, but there was no way you were in the military. You have to be 18 or older." Roy pointed out, "Sure, you may be as tall as crap but you don't even look 18."

"On the contrary, there are rumors of children being kidnapped by the military at a young age. Some of the operators in BlackWatch could be as young as 14." Zach commented.

"And you know that how...?" Roy asked.

"I overheard the guards talking about it."

A fire-team of soldiers that burst through a nearby door without warning, all of them having state-of-the-art armor similar to that which is worn by the operatives who were part of the now disavowed BlackWatch units, except that they were now more upgraded with a new H.U.D on their visors that is linked to whatever weapon they are carrying so that they can see how many bullets they have left in the magazine before they have to reload. Moreover, with their armor equipped, they stood 6 feet tall.

Also, they had thermal vision to pick up heat signatures and a buddy system that allows them to see where their teammates are along with their heart rate and brain waves so they will know if one of their comrades is unconscious or deceased. (Courtesy of Galaxia Incorporated)

All the teens turned to them and prepared themselves for battle yet again.

"Surrender now, please." One of soldiers said through the speakers on their helmet while aiming at them.

The soldier on his right scoffed at his politeness and looked at him, saying, "Dammit, Allen, what did I say about being kind to the prisoners? Be forceful, man!"

"What? I thought saying the magic word would be more effective! Saying 'freeze' and 'surrender' just gets kinda redundant, don't ya think?"

"What does it getting redundant have to do with anything?"

"It has to do with everything, Mike!"

"Well, in case you haven't noticed, this is our job! Jesus Christ, stop trying to be so goddamned innovative all the time!"

"Alright, fine! If you want to do everything by the book then why don't you lead?!" Allen said in an angered tone, throwing his gun to the ground.

"I did want to lead but the higher-ups wouldn't let me! See, that's the thing about life, Allen! You don't always get what you want! But that is a concept that you have yet to understand!" Mike retorted, also raising his voice.

"Umm… guys?" A trooper interrupted, getting in between the two squabbling warriors.

Mike growled, "Can it, Mickey! This is between me," He threw down his gun and shoved Allen into the wall, "and Allen!"

"This is why everyone hates you, Mike! You always try to act like team leader when you're really not!" Allen replied.

"Oh, really? Well wake up and smell the fuckin' flowers, they hate you too! Hell, even Mickey talks about you behind your back!"

"Can you two please stop? Prisoners, security, jail? Does this mean anything to you two?" Mickey asked, aiming at the group of adolescents who were still standing there, watching at the argument in amusement.

"And if you had half a dick, you would have hit me by now!" Mike taunted.

Allen pushed him back and gave him a glare, "Give me a reason."

Mike reeled back his right fist-

_Wham!_

Allen fell right down to the ground, his helmet flying right off, revealing his face.

"How's that for a fucking reason?!" Replied Mike while cracking his knuckles.

"For fuck's sake you two! Kill each other later! Right now we have to detain the prisone-"

Suddenly, a hatch that was directly over him came flying open and Sora crashed down onto him from above. And before the other four soldiers could react, he had already blitzed them as well with devastating spinning kicks, rapid punches, and insane wall-to-wall beat-downs from a series of angles.

Finally, he stuck to the ceiling, standing on it while looking down at his fellow inmates who stood right side up.

"…Ya know, we could have handled that! We were just coming up with a plan in our heads to take those guys down until you showed up!" Roy explained, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms.

Sora chuckled, "I'll take that as a thank you." He chose while hopping down from the ceiling, flipping over before landing on the tile floor, "We should be getting out of here…uh…" He paused, scratching his forehead, not knowing their names.

"Roy, Roy Allan." The blonde said proudly, as the whole group continued onward, dashing down the hallways in search of an elevator.

"Zachary Morales, but most people just call me Zach-" His introduction was interrupted when he suddenly remembered something, "Oh, wait. One sec."

Suddenly, he sped off in the other direction at super-speed then came back instantly, carrying an unconscious Apollo who was slumped over his right shoulder, "We couldn't just leave the kid behind. "

Everyone gave a nod and continued onward until they came to a stop at an elevator, everyone piled in, Zach sitting Apollo up against one of the four elevator walls.

Sora pushed the button but the elevator didn't activate, "Now how are we supposed to get out of here? The elevators don't even work." Sora said while crossing his arms and glaring down at the buttons.

A hand was put on his shoulder and he was moved aside, "Out of the way, Mr. yellow eyes. Let a pro handle this." He suggested while putting his hands up to the console and channeling electricity from his fingertips onto the console to power up the elevator.

"The name's Sora, Sora Hikaru."

Zach noticed that there was a stairway directly across from the high-speed elevator they were in and he smiled, stepping out of the elevator before it's two doors could meet, "I don't know about you guys, but I'm taking the stairs, besides, it's faster than the elevator."

"Hey! Wait! We should stick together!" Sora said while motioning for him to get back into the elevator.

Zach simply waved then sped off, disappearing behind the doors as they closed. The speedster ran up the stairs at speeds beyond sound, going around and around and around, passing by a few guards and scientists as they descended the stairs.

Heck, at this speed he was going even faster than the state-of-the-art elevators.

* * *

Back down at floor 25, in Cell Block A, everyone who was in the train stepped out and looked at all the wreckage.

Aaron Sharpe balled his fists up, angered by all this damaged dealt to a million dollars worth of technology. All that research, all those results had slipped right through his fingertips.

Derrick had already gotten off of Jessica, a crimson flush spreading out on their cheeks as they willed to look at each other but strained to turn away.

Penelope took notice of this and rolled her eyes, walking over to a disgruntled Aaron Sharpe.

"No matter, Galaxia Incorporated will pay for all the damages. But those Meta-Humans must not leave this island." He noted, turning around and noticing Derrick approaching him.

"But aren't you worried that they might be killed up there?" Derrick inquired, shoving his hands into the pockets of his lab coat.

"Pfft, compared to all the guards up there, they might as well be Gods. Especially the weapon." Aaron explained, walking into the secret lab with Derrick and Penelope behind him. He knelt down and examined the cloth that once cloaked the pod that Ares was in.

"But sir, you have to take into account the possibility that even with all their powers, that even Gods must die." Derrick remarked.

Aaron gave him a stern look as he wiped some dust off his suit, "Personally, I don't believe in Gods. But what I do believe in is what man can achieve. But if those escaped teens actually live up to what is a simple code name, then all this is necessary. Necessary for humanity to surpass these so-called 'Gods.' We all saw what happened at Twilight City, Mr. Hawkins. That is why we must be ready in case it happens again."

He then walked out of the laboratory, vowing not to walk in there again until he sees the weapon and Hades back in their respective pods.

_They will be back in here before they know it. Too much money was invested in them. Hell, i'll make sure they'll never even see the sunrise._

* * *

**I had a lot of fun writing this chapter. In this story I hope to practice more on character development so that the personalities of the characters will stick out more. Of course, Roy (Zeus) has electric powers and Zach (Hermes) has super-speed *snore* Boring! **

**But, as the story continues, I will try to make their powers evolve and come up with other interesting stuff. **

**I already have something special planned for Zach (Hermes) that will explain the source of his powers and how he could punch Ares without breaking his hand, how he can run so damned fast, and also how he has an increased perception of time along with his amazing reflexes.**

**Ares has heat vision and super-strength but I will NOT make him into another Superman clone (Freeze-Breath, the ability to go faster than light, invincible to almost all physical harm.) No, I intend to make his powers unique.**

**Anyways, I will update soon! Chao!**

**And just for the record, I LOVE Soul Eater! What I wanted to portray there is the ignorance that some people seem to have at the first sight of anime. **

**To all those people who call it "cartoon porn" give it a chance will ya? You just might like it!**

**(Just in case I accidentally stirred up the hornet's nest when Roy was being ignorant).**


	2. Chapter 2: Emancipation for Metahumans

**A/N: **I don't do the whole "type the review reply on here" thing anymore, I PM my reviewers now! You guys took time out of your busy lives (who's life isn't busy these days?) to review on the story even when you didn't have to and I say thank you, thank you very much!

Now that that has been said...err...hurr durr hurr...

On with the story!

* * *

_It has been a month after the bloody Human-Heartless War which left Twilight City in nothing but ruins. But alas, the New Eden Bridge which the brave men and women of the Twilight Republic's Military defended to their last breath brings forth a new chapter for the refugees. Little did they know that the world was on the brink of being destroyed until a spiky-haired hero by the name of Sora Hikaru, made a selfless sacrifice to save all of them. After our brave keyblade wielder plummeted to Earth, he was taken by Aaron Sharpe and his men to some kind of prison known as "Project Olympus." Now after a rude awakening and the gathering of other metahuman allies, one question remains, will Sora and co escape? Or will they be be captured and never get to see the sunrise?_

* * *

**Chapter Two: Emancipation for Metahumans**

* * *

**Apollo's P.O.V.**

Everything is so dark and cold… I remember when it was nice and warm back at grandma and grandpa's house, the smell of those sweet, chocolate cookies that she used to make…that is if it was still there.

You see, I always had a thing for matches ever since my brother, Axel, gave me one as a "gift"... for my birthday in July. I would always play with it even when grandma and grandpa didn't want me to. I don't know why but the fire seemed interesting. Sure, my sister, Penelo, called me and my brother weird for sharing a strange attraction to fire, but I didn't really pay her any attention.

My fascination with flames got so out of control that one day I decided to touch it but it didn't burn me. Actually it went from the match to my fingertips and I didn't feel a thing.

When that happened, I had to stop what I was doing quickly because Penelo had barged in on me- What is it about girls and not reading signs posted on your door that clearly says "no girls allowed?"

As if that wasn't annoying enough, she always blasts her BTR music in her room and it always comes blaring into my room. But I notice that if I concentrated hard enough, I could make the loud music get quieter and quieter until I could no longer hear it anymore.

To be honest, I'd rather be listening to "Boyfriend," featuring Snoop Dogg, rather than being taken by those weird government guys who saw me accidentally burn down my own house and being stuck in this cold prison. How long have I been in here anyway? Days? Weeks?-I don't even remember anymore... last thing I saw before I blacked out was some super-fast teenager with brown hair that came out of nowhere and broke the glass-

Wait…what is this weird sensation I'm feeling? I can feel my body warming up as if I'm out on some beach during the summer. That, and I could feel vibrations below me, as if I was moving upwards.

Suddenly, I heard a rather loud voice, "Hey! I think he's coming to! Keep using that heat vision or whatever you call it!"

Finally, I opened my eyes only to see calm red rays of light washing down on my body. Three boys surrounded me, and one in particular, compared to the others, looked like a giant- Wait, giant, red beams coming out of his eyes?!

* * *

I heard a "ding" sound and I quickly rose up and brushed past those strange people as fast as I could. In front of me was a wall that separated two entrances so I went through the right one only to enter a normal lobby except there was a whole group of elite soldiers in front of the sealed off, gated entrance. When they had aimed at me, I stopped as if I had hit an invisible wall.

I looked up at the second floor and I felt my heart skip a beat when I saw snipers up on the walkways above, their high-powered rifles mounted on the railing, pointed at me.

"Surrender, now! We have you surrounded!" said a random soldier, his voice being amplified by a speaker.

Before he even spoke, from across the room I could see an array of lavender-blue waves traveling towards me. They passed through my body as if it wasn't there and I heard what was being said.

What the heck are those things? I've been seeing them ever since I was little and I have no idea what they are! I wanted to reach out and touch them because they looked cool, but I was scared that I might get shot while doing so.

One of the guards suddenly approached me, she was tall and slim with her blonde hair wrapped into a bun. Her eyes were as roses you would find in the fields- wait, what is it with all these people having red eyes? It's a rare eye color so where did they come from? Well, I can't be talking either because I have green eyes...

She crouched down so she was at my level, "Hi there. What's your name?" she said soothingly while waving off the other guards so that they would stop aiming at me.

"A-Avery..." I stuttered while looking down at the ground, still afraid...she had a very nice fragrance, though...

"Well, Avery." She smiled and pointed to herself, "My name is Miranda."

Obviously she had noticed my refusal to make eye contact, so she had put a finger under my chin and gently adjusted my head so that I made eye contact with her, "Now, if you and your friends back there can come with us, we can help turn you back to normal."

"...Will I be able to see my sister again?" I asked hopefully. I don't know what's going on here, but if I do know one thing, it's that I want to see my sister again.

At first I was terrified but then I couldn't help but smile when she grinned and nodded. I may have accidentally burned down the house but for some reason, I know she's alive and that she's out there...

Suddenly, I heard a heart that was beating at an abnormal rate. I put my hand to mine and realized that it wasn't mine but...but hers!...Wait, I remember when my grandma told me that when she used to work in the hospital, she used to tell me about the heart pulse or something like that and how you can tell if someone is lying by listening to it.

Then that means that... if her heart is like this then... oh no... she's lying- But wait, what if she's telling the truth and she's just nervous? But if I do run away, they'll probably kill me and those weird guys back there! What if this is all a bad dream? How am I supposed to deal with these kinds of things?!

She still tried to reach out to me, "I won't hurt you, I promise." She reassured.

No... something isn't right here. As much as I want to believe her, I don't think she can keep that promise, "St-Stay away from me!" I exclaimed while slapping her hand away just as it was about to touch my shoulder. I'm not going anywhere until someone explains just where the heck I am!

"We just want to help you-"

I shook my head in refusal, "No! I'm not going with you or them!" I replied briskly while looking past her and at the soldiers who still had their weapons lowered.

With a single growl of impatience, her warm smile suddenly turned into a grim expression, "C'mere you little brat. Don't even try to run." She ordered in an ominous tone as she stomped towards me, willing to grab me with those long, gloved fingers of hers.

"No! Leave me alo-"

When I had screamed, it came out louder than normal. It was so loud that the lady that was about to grab me was sent flying and all the other guards covered their ears with their hands as the glass windows suddenly shattered. Other objects in the room suddenly exploded, shrapnel flying everywhere along with smoke that billowed across the room. Some of the chairs and tables in front of me suddenly exploded but before the shrapnel could hit me, something on my left suddenly picked me up, interrupting my scream.

The person who had picked me up was none other than that brown-haired guy who had broke the glass!

"Y-You again? W-Where did you come from?" I stuttered while looking over his shoulder and seeing the wall being burst through by that weird giant who was shooting laser beams at me.

The brunet chuckled while speeding past a few sound-struck guards, "I took the stairs- whoa!" His answer was interrupted by a surge of electricity that passed overhead as he sprinted across the smokey lobby that now became a war-zone.

Speaking of sprinting, how could he run this fast without crashing into anything? Another weird thing is that there was little air that came towards us as he ran so we could see clearly without the need of goggles.

He came to a sudden stop near one of the offices that were off to the side and dropped me off there, "Whew! That was a close one. Oh, the name's Zach by the way. Zachary Morales, but just call me Zach." He requested while grabbing my left arm and giving it a quick shake then letting it go, "You stay here, okay? Oh, and try not to sing or yell or... you get the idea." He clarified. Once the brunet looked across the lobby, his eyes suddenly widened and his mouth was wide agape.

I poked him on the arm and asked, "What's wrong?"

He looked down at me with a goofy smile on his face, "Not what's wrong! It's what's good!" He cheered while pointing over to the cafeteria that he had spotted across the hall, "Goodbye prison food, hello delicious cuisine: hamburgers, hot dogs, french fries, fish, pasta, soup-"

His voice started to get a higher pitch and he began to talk faster and faster until he was speaking at a rate at which no one could even understand. He bounced up and down a few times, did a small dance, then jetted across the lobby and into the cafeteria.

I blinked then shot a blank expression, dumbfounded by his odd priorities. How could anyone think at a time like this? Anyway, I snuck over to the door to observe all the action.

It wasn't long before Zach popped out of the cafeteria with a mouth full of food and extras cradled in his arms, pursued by a squad of guards armed only with tazers (they were probably on break at the time, so they didn't have any sort of firearms on them), who weren't too happy about him interrupting their meals.

"Crap, it's worse than I thought! They're breaking through! Someone go activate the mines outside!" One of them said.

He gobbled down the food that occupied his mouth before speaking, "It's too bad that this food has to go to waste..." said he while frowning, looking down at the floor.

His sad expression turned into a wry smile when they got closer, "On you guys!" Without warning, he flung all sorts of delicious cuisine at them at high speeds, the motions of his throwing arm being blurred.

The patrolmen gasped as they were pelted by the barrage of projectiles that came at them at a great velocity.

A random guard rappled down from the upper walkway behind the quick fellow and grabbed him, "Alright you clown, enough fuckin' around, you're comin' with me." He said harshly while restraining him.

Zach the brunet snickered and said, "Clown? Me? Well, in that case-" his body suddenly vibrated at an insane rate, causing the guard to shriek in pain and let go of him, tending to his arms that were probably burning with intense pain.

While he was distracted, Zach smirked and span around in place at high speeds with his arms outward, knocking the guard down to the floor. He then stopped and looked down at the dazed prison sentry.

The speedster cackled and crisscrossed his feet, executing one hop and putting out his hands wide "Welcome to the circus!" he greeted humorously. Then, he lurched back into the cafeteria, wolfing down on what was at least an nineteen bologna sandwiches prior to running back out into the lobby, passing by a tall light-skinned man clad in some black body suit with a red "SP" symbol on it

He was giving those black ops guys a good beat-down with that arm-sword of his, he charged into the heavily armed crowd and sliced and diced his way right through them while being backed up by a teenage male with blond spiky-hair, support with static electricity.

I would be glad to help them but... I might do more harm than good with my powers... what good have I done with them anyway? I mean, yeah, sure, I may have stopped those soldiers from taking me away, but I still burned down grandma and grandpa's house and probably killed them and my sister-

Yeah, I should really think positive but... what if all that did really happen? Then I wouldn't have any home to return to...

I turned around and put my back against the wall as a thought crossed my mind.

_What if I just don't use my powers anymore? I could just make a pact or something. You know what? I'll start right now!_ _I, Avery Theodore Freeman, solemnly swear that I will not use my powers for as long as I-_

"Hey, are you alright?" sounded a voice on my left, interrupting my mental promise.

"Hnn?" I looked to my left and noticed some kind of freak with black skin, black clothes and yellow eyes peeking around the door! He looked like something you would see in a horror movie but there's only one problem.

He's _real._

"_Ahh!_ G-Get away from me you horrible, horrible freak of nature!" I told him. Without even thinking, a rampart of wild flames that burned with a great passion suddenly surrounded me and I panicked when I saw what was happening. I bolted around the numerous cubicles that were in the room, glancing back only to see the black horror still pursuing me so I picked up some random office items and threw them when they had caught on fire.

"Whoa!" The monster wailed, dodging the random projectile that I threw at him, "Just stay calm, alright? I'll uh...I'll cool you off with blizzaga! Just hold still!" He offered, flailing his right hand.

After a few flails he looked down at his hand in shock, "Wh-What the...?! Why-Why can't I summon my keyblade...?!"

Instead of listening to him going on and on about some "keyblade," I just kept on running, ignoring the cubicles and the floor that were immolated when I made contact with them. There were screams of anguish that sounded in the room, people that were hiding in here suddenly bolted towards the door, fleeing away from the flames and the smell of burning wood and carpet.

I managed to get a good distance away from the horror but now I had to get out of here. I saw the entrance that was now reinforced with a wall of flames.

At that moment, I remembered my bedroom and how when I woke up, smoke was all that filled my view, then I saw a bright glint of orange and heard the crackle of the green painted walls chipping.

They were like dancing demons, demons that took over my home, demons that I carelessly let loose all because I couldn't control this curse that I possess.

Swiftly I shifted back into reality and glared at those "dancing demons."

I may be scared... but if there's one thing Grandpa Merlin told me was that fear is like that high-school bully. To get them to go away, you just have to meet them face-to-face. Or you can... tell a teacher or in this case, a fireman, to deal with the problem for you.

With one step, I dashed forward to meet the wave of destruction and hurtled through it. Frightened by all that was going on, I closed my eyes as my body met the raging inferno. I didn't feel anything except gentle warmth as I passed through but when I hit the floor and tumbled forward that warmth was replaced with a sudden shower of lukewarm liquid.

When my rolling had ceased, I picked my face up off the tile floor and noticed that it felt wet. I looked up and noticed that an army of silver needles were descending from the overhead sprinklers as an alarm sounded. The flames on my body were suppressed until it became nothing but white smoke which evaporated into the air.

There were also sprinklers in the offices that neutralized the destructive ember, through it came that weird black humanoid creature that wavered across the floor with an odd look on his face. There was an ominous black aura that rose off of his body and divided into wisps when they reached a certain point.

"Hey, Sora! You guys may want to move!" someone behind me shouted.

_Sora? Does he mean the guy with the yellow eyes...? Huh, I thought his name would be more scary-sounding- _I thought.

Dark arms suddenly wrapped around my waist and before I knew it, I was propelled toward the ceiling where I hung there and surveyed the entire lobby.

"Good thing the ceiling isn't wet."

I looked to my right and saw that yellow-eyed freakazoid that was chasing me earlier; but before I could even scream, he covered my mouth with his hand.

"Calm down, Avery, I'm not going to hurt you." He told me while taking his hand off my mouth.

"H-How do you know my name?" I stuttered. He hasn't hurt me or anything, but those yellow eyes of his are still kinda freaking me out...

"Me, Roy and Ares, that tall guy with the heat vision, were hiding behind the wall and we heard you talking to one of the guards. But then we heard a sudden scream and had to cover our ears until you suddenly stopped. I assume you already met Zach." He explained calmly.

I looked down at the floor and watched Ares and Zach retire into the cafeteria (the sprinklers in there never activated) as blue sparks developed in Roy's hands, which then evolved into powerful surges of electricity when he touched the floor and the voltage traveled along the water, channeling over the liquid and using it as a conductor until it struck the hordes of guards and gave them a violent jolt.

They shot up and screamed in anguish as the current traveled up their bodies and lashed out at their flesh, shocking them and making sure they suffered in the most unspeakable of ways.

Snipers that were on the upper balconies all trained their sights on Roy, who had a whole field of voltage around him.

Without remorse, they opened fire but when the bullets reached the electrical aura, the lethal projectiles were suddenly obliterated, being reduced to nothing but bolts of ash as it hit the vibrant solitude of the electrical barrier.

"_Hyaaahhh!_" roared Roy as metallic objects in the vicinity were attracted to him; even the objects that were bolted down were uprooted and forced to take part in the magnetic revolution. As he absorbed the lightning from other electrical appliances, he gradually ascended up into the air, the lightning dancing as it hit the wet floor.

With one thrust of his hands, he let out a colossal cyclone made of pure lightning that went thundering straight towards the entrance, dislodging the walkways' support beams, causing the line of snipers to fall to their deaths and the patrolmen on the main floor to be swept up by the electric current.

The wave of voltage had easily demolished the gate and ripped apart the entrance, demolishing the fancy glass doors, security posts, and even taking a chunk of the building's wall along with it.

Once the smoke cleared, there were no guards there but only piles of ash and debris. There was a large blackened path that running toward what was an entrance, indicating where the wave of lightning traveled. A rather repulsive odor filled the air, but there was no time to worry about that now.

Roy had suddenly dropped to the floor, his body radiating with blue sparks that eventually withered away.

Once everything seemed clear, Sora dropped down from the ceiling and landed on the wet floor next to Roy, releasing me. Zach and Ares came out of hiding and joined us as well, Zach coming out first and tripping up because tried to run across the watery surface.

Before I could even hear Roy's heartbeat, Sora already said, "He's alive, but that attack took a lot out of him though."

"How did you know? You didn't even touch him..." I spoke, astonished by his perception.

Who knows? Maybe he is just like me! He can probably see those lavender waves too-

"Ever since I woke up, I could see the hearts of others..." He responded while scratching his head.

"...Like X-Ray vision?" Zach inquired while getting up.

"Not exactly," he looked down at his menacing claws, "I might have gotten this when I absorbed all that darkness when fighting Aeon- " out of the blue, his eyes flashed purple and the dark wisps sprang up as he clutched his head an pain and unleashed a scream of agony that sounded rather demonic. He blundered around a bit then finally fell forward when his body suddenly vibrated for a few seconds, his hands being the only things that were supporting him.

Cautiously, I inched towards him, "S-Sora...?-"

He growled and croaked, and was about to jet forward and attack me but for some reason, he held himself back, "Stay back! The Heartless...they're... they're...!- _Ahhhh!_" He pounded the floor with his right fist twice, as the black skin started to tear away, revealing light, tanned skin, and caramel colored spiky hair. His yellow eyes shifted into that of azure blue, regaining those irises that were thought to be lost in that terrifying form of his.

His clothes looked like something that Mickey Mouse himself would wear: a white and black over-jacket, a red jumpsuit underneath, a pair of white and yellow finger-less gloves, with a shiny silver crown necklace to finish it all off.

He panted heavily, as the final remnants of the black wisps faded off of him. He stole one final glance at us before he blacked out. As he did, a weird-looking white orb came out of him and with one simple flash, it turned into a teenage boy with the same outfit as Sora except it was all white with a silver wolf chain necklace, his eyes being lush green with red irises and his spiky hair was jet black.

Ares was the first to approach the strange male, his eyes turning red again.

The boy quickly put up his hands in defense, "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Easy with the claws, I'm on your side! My name's Aros, Aros Hikaru! " He said hastily, while moving over to Sora.

"You're his brother?" Zach asked while pointing at Sora.

He grunted while picking up Sora, putting his right arm around his shoulder while pulling him into a fireman's carry, "Well, not excactly, you see, I am actually a part of him and I had to help him fight his darkness and the Heartless and-" he sighed when he noticed the confused look on all our faces, "It's a long story, I'll tell you all about it as soon as we get out of here, deal?"

"Deal." said Ares as Zach picked up Roy, carrying him the same way Aros did Sora.

* * *

We all began walking towards the damaged entrance, which revealed darkness that washed over the land, indicating that it was obviously night time. The only thing stopping us from freedom now was this large courtyard decorated with lush greenery, wooden benches which was surrounded by towering walls made of steel, at the far end being the entrance to the whole entire complex which went between two pillars.

"Alright, here's the plan. They're obviously waiting for us outside, so I'll whip up a light barrier, but we've got to move fast. For some reason, I can't summon my keyblade and my magic isn't as strong, plus I can't seem to contact Anti and-"

"Well what are we waiting for? Me and sparky see you guys on the other side!" Zach interrupted briskly before charging out into the open.

Aros had already reached out to grab the runner but he was too slow, "Wait- Dammit!"

The moment Zach had stepped outside the searchlights had illuminated the ground and a land mine suddenly sprung out of the ground in front of him. Seconds before it could even explode, he made a sharp turn left only to pass by more mines, causing a chain of explosions as he raced around the booby-trapped arena, machine-guns showering the arena from elevated positions as they tried to get a bead on him.

_Boom!_

_Boom!_

_Boom!_

Now it was a great time to move. Aros had whipped up a round force-field made entirely of light which sheltered us as we walked outside. Apparently the guards had lost interest in Zach because the bullets were now heading towards the shield.

But what really got me scared was when a rocket came at from the right side and hit the shield.

Ares turned to Aros, "You keep up the barrier; I'll take some of the pressure off." He stated as his arms were shifted into black and red three-fingered talon-like appendages, the claws themselves being jagged at the edges, representing military combat knives.

As black veins started popping on his neck, he released a snarl when his body cringed; with a distinct crackle of his bones, three sharp black and red blades suddenly stuck out from his back, all of them lined up in a vertical column and curving downward.

He looked down at me with those red eyes of his, jerking his head to the side, indicating that he wanted me to move. The moment I moved aside, he barreled forward with incredible velocity, passing through the shield and leaping up towards the fortifications that were embedded into the wall.

"Let's get moving."Aros said while walking onward towards the entrance, moving the dome along with him as he went.

I nodded in agreement, "Right." I kept close so that I didn't fall behind. At least we weren't running though, I wasn't always the fastest runner in school...

But wait...what if this shield doesn't hold? What if a bullet somehow gets in here? What if there's something at the end waiting for us? What if I suddenly catch on fire like I did last time? What if I screw this whole thing up? Then we'll all be dead!- No, I should think positive! Besides, we're almost there! Just a few more steps and we'll be out of here in no time!-

Another missile came, barreling at us, this time from the left side. As it slammed into the shield, Aros grunted, "Damn, if this keeps up, then in a few seconds, we'll have to run to the entrance." He beefed, sweat forming on his forehead at the sound of the bullets crackling. He drew in a long breath then let it hiss out slowly but then his eyebrows arched and a cool smile formed on his lips, "Wait, there's actually someone that can help us!"

I raised an eyebrow at his will to turn the tides of this situation, "Really? Who?"

He crouched down and touched the ground, a large, glowing yellow circle encompassed the entire shield.

I looked around frantically and panicked as the ground started to rumble, "What's happening?!" I asked. My question didn't receive an answer. Just when I was about to leave, there was a massive discharge and before I knew it, I felt a talon wrap around me and hoist me into the air as thundering winds whipped all around. The flapping of golden-brown wings was accompanied by a loud screech.

Okay, if this is some kind of hungry bird, then I really, really hope that it isn't going to eat me! I don't really taste all that good and-

"Tiberius! Let's go!" Aros commanded.

_Whoosh!_

Whatever this "Tiberius" thing was went skyward abruptly as bullets chased after us. Good Lord, it was like roller-coaster! down upon us. Before I could even take in the view of the night sky, the golden-brown furred winged beast that was carrying me suddenly plummeted straight down towards the prison.

If this isn't a stare into the Gates of Hell, then I don't know what is. I quickly closed my eyes and tried to think calm thoughts- so much for that.

I screamed, screamed for my life and once again, for an odd reason it was amplified. Accompanying the howling winds from the intense downward turbulence that struck my face were loud explosions and whirling sounds that sounded like the blades of a helicopter, once my loud screams had ceased, the machine-gun fire began to get louder and louder, the volume almost overpowering the sound of Aros' voice when I heard him shout, "Get on!"

Mustering up enough courage to open my eyes, I saw that we were soaring across the length of the long courtyard, off to the right-hand side was Ares who was sprinting on the top of the steel wall, charging through soldiers and knocking down turret emplacements that were shooting at us. One of the turrets ahead of him had already turned and aimed it's ferocious guns at the raven-haired boy.

He leaped up into the air and came down right in front of the turret, stabbing his right claw into the ground, pillar of tall, black spikes to suddenly rise up from under the turret and impale the lethal device along with it's gunners, scarlet liquid erupting from their stabbed corpses as they were consumed by ember and smoke. He then kicked a large chunk of the spikes over to a bunker full of soldiers on the other side of the courtyard that was shooting at us.

"C'mon, man! You're runnin' out of wall! _You gotta jump for it!_" Aros shouted.

Indeed, he was running out of wall- and time. I could already see an attack helicopter chasing him! After going through a few more strafes across the dark compound, dodging bullets and anti-aircraft shells, we finally got in a perfect position to take the heavily armed Apache out of the sky.

"Don't worry, a little thundaga should take this thing down!- _Goddammit!_ What the fuck?!" Aros cursed. He peeked down to look at the underside, where I was.

"What's wrong?"

"My magic, it's...it's gone! First the keyblade problem, now magic!"

"Gone? How? You summoned this beast and made a light shield just fine- and what's a keyblade?"

He frowned, "Again... long. story." with that, he went back up top to see where the griffin was going.

I know...I know... I made a promise not to use my powers but if I don't, Ares will get captured or maybe even die. So I took a deep breath, exhaled and said, "Keep Tiberius steady...I'm want to try something!"

"Alright but whatever you're doing, make it fast! Zach is doing his best to stop the guys down there from shooting but who know's before one of them might hit us!" He reminded.

I nodded and held my hand out to the helicopter and focused. Before I knew it, fire suddenly flared up on my hand, releasing a ball of flame that hit the chopper's tail just as it fired a missile at Ares.

By the time the missile had flown, the brunet had finally reached the end of the tall wall, where he jumped but accidentally jumped so far that he over-shooted the land and plunged towards the sharp, piercing rocks upon which the waves swept, welcoming him to a watery grave.

At the last few minutes of his fall, Tiberius had swooped down and grappled him in his right talon.

To get out of the line of fire coming from the walls, we flew low over the darkened, sandy beaches. I looked down and noticed Zach who was looking up at me with a grin on his face as we passed by. He took one hand off Roy gave me a thumbs up.

I responded with a smile and a thumbs up with my own prior to him turning into a white and blue flash as he ambled across the moonlit waters to keep up with us.

When all the chaos was over, I could finally get a chance to appreciate the night sky. The heavens contained a plethora of stars that filled up the black space, twinkling ever bright. But their twinkling was utterly insignificant to that of the radiant white moon which shined down upon us freely with no clouds obstructing it.

It was a beautiful experience, feeling the wind against your face as you soared across the luminescent ocean. We soared for miles and miles until we finally found a blue stretch of land. Floating over the flat planes a few azure mountains, we could see a massive city full of lights with a river that ran through it.

**Hollow Bastion.** My hometown, the one that I longed to return to.

At that moment, I felt like a bird released from it's cage, no longer in cold bondage.

I felt warm_._

I felt **free_._**

* * *

**A/N:** Well there ya have it folks! Some of Avery's back story! I know, I bet you all are still trying to get over the fact that he is Axel's brother and that Merlin is his grandpa. If you've played Final Fantasy 12 then you should know who Penelo is.

Anwho, now that we're out of the hoosegow (why do I keep on saying that?) we can finally see what has happened to the Human-Heartless War refugees and the military over this past month and how it has changed Avery's hometown.

But there are so many unanswered questions: What does the "SP" on Ares' suit mean? How can Zach run without friction affecting him? How does Roy have ions in his bloodstream, and just what the hell is happening to Sora?!

Tune in next time to find out!

* * *

**Up next on Project Olympus...**

_No! You can't fire me! Not when I'm so close...!_

_Why would you clone him?!_

_You may be a part of me, but we are nothing alike!_

_Again, I have my reasons._

_Now you see what a breakthrough me and my team have achieved here. This is what is needed to create the perfect warrior. One that is always loyal to his country, one that follows orders and is willing to fight down to the last man. The time for soldiers has passed. Because in this day and age, we need more than that- we need warriors._


	3. Chapter 3: Unusual Ancestry

**A/N: **Alrighty folks, sorry for the long wait but here it is!

Enjoy!

* * *

**Chapter 3: Unusual Ancestry**

_Tha-thump..._

_Tha-thump..._

_Tha-thump..._

That was all that filled Sora's eardrums as he plummeted into the darkened chasm head-first, his body weakened from the harshness of the Heartless energy, there were eerie voices that rambled on in his head, conversing about indescribable nonsense that would make one go insane. His long, mundane plunge ceased when the laws of physics were suddenly violated, gravity halting his body temporarily then letting him sink to the ground as he felt the torturous pulsations of pain that rattled his beating heart. The eerie voices began to get louder and louder as he sat there, alone in the chilly black null void.

But maybe he wasn't alone after all.

Thousands of iris-less yellow eyes appeared and surrounded the brunet, all of them staring at him blankly as he got to his knees and sat there with his head hung low and his spiky bangs covering those vibrant blue eyes of his. There were multiple wounds and scars embedded on his tanned skin. A tiny scratch was across his cheek while crimson red marks dotted his arms and legs. The injured keyblade wielder didn't even move as the black prison which he was in and the army of golden eyes faded away and revealed the obliterated planes dotted with skeletons and diminished bodies of the like.

A small river of tears began to stream from the adolescents eyes. Black wisps of an evil entity descended down from the mass meadow of darkened skies which loomed over the large capital that became a large, bloody battlefield. As the wisps touched down on the scorched earth, they had surrounded Sora and had morphed into black portals that led off into the unknown. Out of them came the very creatures that were created because of him, the very beasts that he sent into that wormhole.

"Stop it..." he muttered as they began to creep up to him, readying their claws with vengeance.

"Stop it..."

They lunged at him-

"STOP IT!_"_ he yelled to the heavens. This was their reply:

The shadows suddenly vanished and a whole sea of thick fog suddenly rolled in. Confused about what was going on, the keyblade wielder got to his feet and ambled awkwardly forward. Eerie whispers made contact with his ears as he battled the blinding fog. As he continued onward, a white and blue house came into view. As he passed by the mailbox that had "Hikaru" labeled on the front, he went up the driveway and towards the door, the whispers getting louder as he got closer to the door. He hesitated for a few moments but eventually he mustered up enough courage to turn the knob and push forward. He went to turn on the lights and once he did, he saw Anti sitting on the first of the flight of steps that led upstairs. In his hand was a pistol and above him, hanging upside-down from the ceiling were Lighting and Akira while Roxas was sprawled out on the floor in front of Anti, all of them having blood on their clothes. The only thing that was keeping these two from falling and cracking their heads were ropes tied onto black hooks that snared their legs.

"Sup." Anti said casually as he saw Sora fume with extreme anger and rush toward him with a devastating right hook at the ready, but this act of intense aggression didn't faze him in the slightest. He simply grabbed his right arm and pulled him in so that he would hit the stairs.

Before the brunet could get up and strike again, he felt something cold prod the side of his head, darting his eyes to the right, through peripheral vision, he could see the barrel of a handgun.

"What? No hi back? At least show some common courtesy." Scolded Anti as he pushed Sora away, pointing his handgun right at the boy's head. He sighed and rolled his eyes when Sora didn't make a move, "Why does that always happen? You rush in like an idiot hell-bent on killing the motherfucker but when he points an M1911 at your face; you suddenly can't back your shit up?" Anti commented then continued: "Relax, this isn't your real family; I'm just screwing with ya, that's all. And I can prove it too." He pointed his gun up at Lightning first and pulled the trigger-

_Bam! _

The yellow-eyed teen sniggered as the fake pink-haired teen's body faded until it was nothing more than black wisps, the same happening to Akira when he shot her too.

Sora snorted and quickly approached him, "Well if you were just screwing around, then I have one thing to tell you: that wasn't funny, _at all_." He remarked in a cold tone, turning around and shuffling across the brown wooden floor and towards the window next to the brown door, "I need to wake up and get out of that prison."

"We're not in that prison." Anti replied while putting down his pistol and standing up to discreetly scratch his butt, the moment Sora began to turn around, he sat back down again.

"Then where are we now?"

"We're in Merlin Freeman's mansion which is located in the city of Hollow Bastion." He noticed Sora was puzzled by his words and he continued," Okay, I'll give you the short story. From what Aros told me, we ran into some guy named Axel who was hanging out with his buddies, a sentimental family reunion began between him and that kid named Avery because they were brothers, then an even bigger sentimental reunion happened when you, Aros, and the others arrived at the mansion."

Sora pondered, scratching his head and muttering, "Merlin Freeman…" he then asked Anti: "Who's that?"

"Don't know, don't care. Aros mentioned that he has a 15 year-old granddaughter and from what I hear, she's quite the looker- oh, wait, never mind, you're still looking for Kairi, aren't you?"

"Kairi…" Sora muttered, that very name reminding him about the redhead who he loved; who is most likely devastated. He heard a spark in the family room and walked in there only to see a her on the TV, sporting a white jacket with a black t-shirt underneath (the image cut off her lower body). Brooding thoughts had come into his mind, thoughts that were soon interrupted by-

"So, let me guess… you're about to embark on this long-ass, cliché journey which revolves around getting Kairi back." Anti said in a matter-of-factly tone, moving to sit on the couch while playing around with his M1911 pistol, smiling when he heard the distinct snap it made whenever he loaded the magazine. Sora snorted and turned to him.

"No!" He snapped, he then noticed Anti's smirk and rolled his eyes, "Okay, something like that…no-uh- agh!" He put both his hands in the barbed wire of spikes that was his hair, it almost looked like he was about to rip all those spikes off, "How the heck did I end up in that place anyway?!"

"Well what were you expecting to happen? A happy ending where you prance around on some beautiful island with you, your friends, and some fucking Disney characters? Do you really think that when it boils down to common terms that those people who you saved actually give two fucks about you and your heroism?"

"Although all those people died… I did what needed to be done so more wouldn't share their same fate, but I didn't expect to get kidnapped after I plummeted to earth!" Sora said while leaning against the wall near the TV.

Anti rolled his eyes then got up off the couch and went over to one of the windows to admire all the destruction: "Yeah, yeah, all those people died because of you. Ya know, that was some crazy stuff man, freakin' wild! And you know what? That was something I wanted to do. That, for me, was heaven right there. Hell, I would admire and take pictures of that scene all day if the world wasn't about to be in a major shit-storm- but **you**_,_" he pointed at him, "you caused all that!"

"You say that like it's something I'm supposed to proud of."

"If I were you, I would be- oh wait, I **am** you!"

"You may be a part of me but we are **nothing** alike!" Sora shouted abruptly, pressing off the wall.

"Oh really? Then explain why you cracked that one guard's bones when you got out of the pod then eh?" Anti requested, rising up off of his seat and taking a step forward.

Sora shrugged, "It was just a reflex that's all. I just got out of a pod that I've been sleeping in for God knows how long, and I was just getting back into the swing of things, that's all." He defended, to which Anti scoffed.

"Back into the swing of things you say. I call B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T~" He sang, pleased when he perceived Sora's glare.

A sudden impulse hit the brunet and he found himself fast-walking over to Anti as a dark aura came upon him, "And I call- why don't you just shut up before I impale you with a flagpole?! I did it once, and I can do it again!" He boomed.

Anti sat there with a smirk as Sora met him face-to-face. Like a blur, minutes passed by and eventually atmosphere cooled and the standoff ceased with Sora turning around, "I just want to go home."

"Well here you are! Home sweet home!" Anti announced.

The house disappeared, leaving the two on a pillar that showed portraits of all his friends and family (even Anti Sora was in there) with him in the center, his eyes closed with kingdom key in his hand.

Sora frowned. "You know what I mean… I hope they made it out okay." As Sora kept on mono-logging, there was a rattling of the chains but he didn't even notice.

He heard another rattling of chains coming from behind him and he turned around only to see Anti standing near the edge near a cinder-block attached to a chain link which was just inches away, sitting on a blue platform which was the only thing that was stopping it from plunging into the dark abyss.

"What are you doing?"

"Hey, are you good at math? If you are, I need you to calculate how deep this pillar goes, that is _if_ you survive." Anti shrugged then continued, " Eh, you most likely will, which sucks- oh, and say hi to you-know-who for me! Later!" Anti requested as he pointed his pistol down at the platform. Sora noticed the chain going from the cinder-block, all the way to his right leg, where it was tied around it.

Sora snarled, "Son of a-"

**BANG!**

The blue platform shattered instantly and the cinder-block fell through the separated shards, diving into the pitch black unknown. And thanks to the evil laws of physics, the chain pulled on Sora's leg violently, causing him to fall onto his back and slide straight past Anti, falling right off the edge.

"AHH!"

Anti Sora gave a satisfied smirk as he looked over the edge and watched Sora plunge into what was seemingly infinite, "Wait, what was I supposed to say to him before he fell? Oh, wait! Now I remember! **Follow your light! Let it guide you**- ah fuck, never-mind, he can't hear me."

* * *

As the former prisoners rested and awaited daybreak, the compound from which they escaped was ever awake. Engineers dashed to and fro, putting out fires and getting construction done on the damaged entrance and the turrets that met a grim demise. Medics tended to the wounded survivors and deaf guards, carrying them off to medical stations to treat them, clearing the way for other laborers to clean up the mess in the lobby. Beyond the lobby in the office furthest to the back which came equipped with a black carpet, bland white walls, and a desk made of dark, rich wood. Behind said desk was a massive window which offered an spectacular view of the ocean and all it's beauty. But of course, the man who sat behind that desk, Aaron Sharpe, knew very well that now was not a time to be admiring the ocean, there was work to be done!

As well groomed man executed the mundane task of signing paperwork, clearing through the stack of papers on his desk, he heard a beeping noise on a black square device next to the phone and he pressed the blue button on top. For some odd reason, the 39 year-old man wore a black glove that covered his right hand but didn't wear one on his left.

"Mr. Sharpe? Mr. Price is here to see you." said his secretary through the device.

"Send him in."

Aaron looked up at the brown double-door entrance in front of his desk and within a few minutes it opened and in came his secretary, along with a blonde man who had bright orange eyes, his apparel consisting of: A periwinkle lab coat with a long red scarf of some sort draped over his shoulders. His pants were black, and the same could be said for his shoes. Underneath the lab coat, he wore a dark grey vest, a white collar shirt, and a violet ascot. For some reason, he wore a glove on his right hand but nothing on his left.

"You called me up here, sir?" asked the blond.

Aaron motioned for Jessica, his secretary, to leave. After she had closed the door , he said, "Ansem, do you realize why I have called you up here?" Aaron asked in a rather annoyed tone.

"No."

"The reason I have called you up here is about your research on the Heartless. The last couple of weeks you haven't updated on anything and-"

"I'm sorry that I haven't really reported anything in a while but by George I believe I've done it! I'm one step closer to cracking the Heartless genetic code and learning more about the dark magic which they originate from."

_Wham!_

Ansem winced at the distinct sound made by his boss when he rose up abruptly and slammed both his fist on the desk.

"What do you mean, **dark magic**?!" noticing how quickly he lost his cool, the businessman took a deep breath, exhaled and sat back down in his chair which was coated with leather, "Mr. Price, when this establishment was being built- thanks to the funds of my corporation, I was more than happy to indulge in your little _sub-project_, but now you're trying my patience. I have given the finest of resources and all you had to give to me in return was one thing- **results**."

"Sir, I just need more time, maybe-"

"No, we have too much on our hands without you wasting valuable resources trying to prove your comatose theory about the arcane arts. Project Sparta is already trying to get its cloning program started up again since the first one and co fled the island not too long ago." Aaron interrupted, giving the blond scientist in front of him a stern look.

"But there is so much more to be explored and-"

"The ORION project is being shut down, Mr. Price. And I am afraid that I will have to shut you down, too."

"_No_! You can't fire me! Not when I'm so close…!"

"I can and I will. Now, you can show yourself the way out or will the guards have to assist you?"

You can't do this! I need this job!-" By the time the blond had even begun that sentence, Aaron had already pressed a button under the desk and two guards armed with HK416's came into the room. Before they escorted him out, Ansem gave his former boss one last glare to which he returned. The conflict in their eyes disappeared when the doors made them lose visual contact.

Aaron leaned back in his chair and sighed when he was hit by a wave of boredom. He decided to take a break from signing all those papers to his right and cast his eyes on the unsolved Rubik's cube which resided on the right side of his desk. Aaron could never figure out this mind-boggling algorithm. Regardless, he didn't back down from the challenge. He engaged the internal pivot mechanism by turning each face and mixing up the colors. Try though the businessman might, all he did was assist in the improper meeting of the trios of colors on the cube.

Like Zachary Morales, the hour in which he spent playing with the cube went by like a blur. Outside, the horizon had brightened, developing a hue of yellow and orange, a tell-tale sign to the night that it was high time to retreat because the sun was on the rise.

Aaron snarled as he worked the contraption, "Damn this puzzle…what's the big deal about this thing anyway? I don't find this addicting in the slightest!" He cursed, folding his arms and giving the popular but confusing cube a disgruntled look and slamming it on the desk in defeat.

As soon as the man finished his rant, Penelope had entered into the office with paper in her arms, saying, "Hey boss, here are those documents concerning the- ooh! Rubik's cube! "She lumbered over to the desk, added the papers to the already huge stack, picked the cube up, and in a matter of minutes, she solved it and put it back down on the desk.

Aaron could only sit there and look at the researcher in pure astonishment, "What in the blue blazes-"

Penelope continued, "Here are those documents concerning the repairs for all the damages. Later." She coolly put her hands in the pockets of her white lab coat and walked out, using her foot to close the door behind her.

The C.E.O. of GalaxiaCorp and the main benefactor of this establishment glanced at the door, then at the stack of papers, then at the Rubik's cube. He simply picked the cube up then threw it in the trash can next to his desk, "Worst. Birthday gift. Ever." He sighed and glanced at the clock while massaging his forehead, "I should get some sleep..." Deciding that he will handle the documents in the morning, he got out of his seat, gathered up all his valuables sauntered towards the door, and exited the office, making sure to lock the door behind him.

He walked down the hall only to make a left turn into his secretary's office where he peeked in only to see that Jessica was...on Skype.

The amber-eyed male suddenly burst in glaring at Jessica as he walked over to her swiftly, the attractive brunette responding by clicking the red "x" in the upper right hand corner.

But it was too late for that, he already saw who she was messaging.

**Derrick Hawkins.**

"So, what were you two conversing about?" Aaron said briskly, gritting his teeth as he stared down at her. Jessica couldn't even look him square in the eyes.

She gulped, "...We were just talking about work and all that has happened so far..." She replied timidly, making sure to choose her words carefully.

He leaned put both his hands on the desk and leaned downward so that his face was closer to hers, "Honestly, right now I think you're bullshitting me but I'll take your word for it. But let's just get one thing clear here. You. Belong. To me. Without me, you are nothing, understand? I gave you a nice, high-paying job, good food, a penthouse, and a little pleasure on the side. Now, do you want to go back to being in that brothel? Whoring it up with all those other men? Or do you want to stay with me and live the good life?"

"...I-"

Suddenly, the very blond who she was "skyping" entered into the office, "Hey, Jess! Are you ready to go- Evening Mr. Sharpe! Uh, or should I say morning? Anyways, Xehanort wants to talk to you about Project Spartan, oh, and have you seen Ansem anywhere?"

With a quick change of attitude, Aaron turned to Derrick and grinned, "Please, call me Aaron. And Ansem had to receive the pink-slip I'm afraid. He should have left the island an hour ago. And you should be too, it's early in the morning and everyone should be getting some rest."

"Oh, well that's a shame," he said then nodded, "and I will. I came here because I promised Jess that I would walk her to the ferry."

Aaron retained his mean look and painfully nodded, "Of course! I wouldn't want to keep you two." He stepped out of Jessica's way as she gathered all her valuables and exited the office with him.

Galaxia Corps' president found his cellphone ringing and yanked it out of his pocket, noticing the caller ID, he answered it, "Yes? What is it, Xehanort?"

"There's something down here that you may want to see. Come down to floor 25B-wait, why is it called 25B? Before it was just called floor 25. Did you just make that change?"

"Yes. It was an architectural flaw that just got corrected. Who knows? We might be adding new floors to this establishment."

"Heh. Alright, once you get down here, come into the cell block that the metas escaped from."

* * *

With a short trip through the almost empty hallways of the facility and a ride on the high-speed elevators, Aaron had eventually reached floor 25B, where he made his way into the cell block which was still being repaired and into the secret laboratory. Stepping over some of the rubble, he saw a man in a white lab coat with long white hair that had two bangs framing his face and three backwards facing spikes. Also with the lab coat he wore a gray vest over top a white collar shirt. He was standing next to a machine that was placed behind and connected to Ares' pod.

"Alright Xehanort, what is this all about? And what is that thing?" Demanded Aaron as he approached the scientist.

"This?" He put his hand on the machine that had a logo that symbolized the Penrose Triangle on it, "This is an **Animus**."

"A what?"

"An Animus. A virtual reality machine that allows the subject to view genetic memories encoded in their DNA."

"And what does this have to do with the weapon?"

"It has **everything** to do with the weapon." The two began to walk to the front of the pod as Xehanort explained: "You see, the Animus was sold to us by Abstergo Industries, the producers of this brilliant device. Of course, our tech team took a look at the it and managed to modify it just for this pod. When the Animus taps into the subject's DNA, this transports them to a three-dimensional virtual reality where the subject can control their ancestor and interact with the world during their time."

"Why would you need to hook the weapon up to that thing? All he needs is the serum and-"

"That 'weapon' as you like to call him, is **not** the original. He's a **clone**."

"Why would you clone him?!"

"We needed to because the original's body couldn't take the pressure from the serum, so we cloned him, modified his genetics, and tried again. And this time it worked!" Xehanort exclaimed, turning to the pod.

"But that still doesn't explain why you needed the Animus."

"While the clone was in the Animus, he was experiencing the memories of the original. Overtime, the Animus can cause a 'Bleeding Effect.' Which is exactly what we wanted, as he experiences what his ancestor experienced, transferring skills such as reading, writing, walking, talking, all the basic things that a human is taught, along with that, some other advanced skill sets. But the problem lies with the Animus itself."

"How so?"

"For some reason, this thing had glitched and had went further back than what we wanted. The teams had tried to fix it but we couldn't figure out what was wrong. I doubt that the power outage that freed the meta's didn't do much good to the Animus while it was performing it's functions."

"But you have more of this serum so..." Xehanort nodded.

"Now you see what a breakthrough me and my team have achieved here. This is what is needed to create the perfect warrior. One that is always loyal to his country, one that follows orders and is willing to fight down to the last man. The time for soldiers has passed. Because in this day and age, we need more than that- we need **warriors**.

* * *

As Xehanort enlightened Aaron on the subject of the Animus, the scientists on the island went home to hit the hay and eventually, daylight came. The shining orange and yellow orb that we knew as the sun rose up over the horizon as the night retreated, the skies shifting from dark to light, bringing along gay colors such as purple, scarlet, and finally, light blue.

The rays from the sun traveled from space to earth as heralds of the final frontier, seeping in through the tiny parting between the lavender blue curtains until it hit fair tan skin belonging to a familiar brunet who's name, in Japanese, means the sky. Sora groaned and pulled the blankets over him to shield himself from the annoying sunlight, he knew he had to get up sooner or later but the lazy bum just didn't want to.

He felt something poke him on his shoulder through the blanket but he growled and turned over drowsily in response.

Snickering could be heard along with: "Oh, so you're going to ignore me eh?"

The sleeper heard faint dialogue, ending in: "Okay...if you say so..."

Suddenly, the sound of a scream of a very high volume filled the air. The uproar being so loud in fact that the very second Sora heard it, he went tumbling off the bed, the lavender blue blankets accompanying him. The irritating noise ceased as fast as it came, being replaced by the loud thud caused by the lazy brunet when he hit the floor, who was know wide awake and looking around frantically, wondering just what the hell happened. He heard laughter coming from a familiar person and looked onward only to see Aros on the floor, clutching his stomach as he laughed uncontrollably. Standing next to him was Avery who had his hand cupped over his mouth with his eyes wide.

"Bwahahahahahaha! Oh-oh God, you should have seen your face! Haha!" Aros remarked, wiping the tear off his cheek as he got up, still chuckling madly.

Sora huffed and massaged his forehead, feeling the pain rushing towards his skull, "There _are_ other ways to wake me up ya know!" Sora pointed out in an exasperated tone.

Aros rolled his eyes and replied: "Yeah, like an alarm clock. Which, for some reason, this room didn't have. So I had to improvise." He smirked and tapped Avery's right shoulder.

"I'm not an alarm clock..." Protested Avery in a soft tone. The copper-haired boy sported a blue graphic t-shirt which had a trail of black musical notes, at the bottom was the word "Mozart." And with that, he had on grey sweatpants and white socks.

Unlike Avery, Aros retained the same outfit he was wearing when they broke out of that facility. Looking down at himself, Sora noticed that he was still in his mickey-mouse style outfit (no one wanted to have the pleasure of stripping him down to his undergarments and dressing him back up again).

"C'mon, there's someone you may want to meet." Aros said, beckoning him to come along as him and Avery exited the room. Before he stepped out of the door, Sora looked back at the now untidy king-sized bed but decided to make it up some other time.

* * *

When the trio had finally reached the end of the long, decorated hallway filled with portraits and expensive glass vases, they made their way down the spiral of stairs and to the first floor where they walked through the corridors lined with maids and butlers that were standing by for more mundane chores, and past the living room. One could only wonder what their salary is...

Whatever it is, the money they earn pales in comparison to the money the players of the football team known as the Hollow Bastion Knights earn after each game that they win. As a matter of fact, they were being viewed right now on the large flat-screen TV by one of their fans, Roy Allan.

The stadium on the screen was roaring with excitement, all eyes focused on the field as the athletes in white and red faced off against the opposing team clad in orange and blue. The Radiant Garden Chimeras was their name: defense was their game.

"Alright folks, looks like it all comes down to this! So far the Knights have had trouble breaking through the Chimera's defensive line. They're just one touchdown away from victory, Chuck! Why can't they just end it already?" Bob Gordon, the commentator, said.

"Well Bob, it seems like there has been a loss of focus with the team. Their chemistry seems to be all out outta wack, especially with their quarter-back, Andrew Black, being out of commission. Now they have no choice but to play Demarco Long! The rookie!" Replied Chuck.

"You know what they say Chuck, the pros, you know what they're most likely gonna do, but the rookies, ah yes, they're the most unpredictable. Again, it ain't over, till it's over."

"But that's what I'm afraid of Bob. What if it's really over for the Knights? The Chimeras are known for having an amazing record, oh, and don't forget that winning streak!"

Once the quarter back received the ball from the player in front of him, the play began and the ferocious Chimeras began to eat away at the Knight's blockers. Tearing through them one by one, eager to get to the rookie. Once they got through, nothing was stopping them from getting to them until he suddenly chucked it down the field just as they were about to tackle him. Brown ball of fate soared down the field only to land in the hands of a wide receiver that was already running towards the touchdown.

"And Demarco snaps it to Preston!"

Multiple Chimera players chased Preston down like mad dogs as he sprinted as fast as he could across the lush green field.

"C'mon Preston! It's all you man! It's all you! Finish the god damned fight!" Roy shouted loudly and passionately, Zach who was sitting next to him, just let himself sink into the couch with a dejected look.

"To the forty five yard line! Th-the thirty five yard line! Patterson and Douglas hot on Preston's heels, the rest of the Chimeras following in behind him! Can he make it folks?! Can. He. Make it?!" One of the commentators asked rhetorically.

Just when all hope seemed lost. As one of the Chimeras was about to make contact with the Knight's back, he had crossed the line and every Knights fan in the stadium stood up and shouted in pure glee, Preston doing a victory dance and slamming the ball down onto the end-zone.

As the Knights went wild with their surprising victory, congratulating both the rookie and the runner as a few of the players mounted them on their shoulders, Roy had stood up on the brown couch and began cheering like a madman, shouting, "Wooo! Yeah! TOUCHDOWN!" Zach rolled his eyes and crossed his arms.

"Great, the stupid game ended. Now can we _please _watch the Funimation channel?"

"And view more cartoon porn? I think not!" Roy jeered, holding the Verizon Fios remote captive while giving him a defiant look. "What do you have against football anyway?"

"Okay one," Zach snatched the remote away from the football fan at an inhuman speed, " **I have my reasons**. And two: It's **Anime**."

"I don't get it, how can a person who runs super-fast hate football?"

"Again, **I have my reasons**."

"And are you going to share these so-called 'reasons'?"

"No." Replied Zach as he flicked through channels, until Ciel Phantomhive appeared on the TV screen along with Sebastian.

Of course, Roy was on the brink of retrieving the remote when the dark expression that was on the speed demon's face made him think twice about doing that.

* * *

The Freeman Mansion was comprised of hues of white and blue. The duo worked in perfect harmony as they showed throughout the house, complimenting the artistry on the walls. Vivid portraits that depicted the memorable moments in history each spun their own tale. Historic moments ranging from the bloody Battles of Lexington and Concord all the way back to the obviously long-fought Hundred Years War which ended in French victory (thanks to Joan of Arc) and the Battle of Hastings. On top of that, there were clay sculptures, heads of history's great leaders such as Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill, George Washington, and Charlemagne.

Whoever owned these sculptures and portraits was truly a person who valued history.

When Sora, Avery, and Aros had finally reached their destination after going down flight of stairs, the walls changing from white walls with blue accents to black and grey cobblestone. Finally, after they had reached the final stair, they came face-to-face with a wooden door that had more of a classic appearance than all the other doors around the mansion. A yellow star carved was carved on it.

Sure, all they had to do was open it. but there was one tiny little problem...

The door didn't have a knob.

Aros turned to Sora and revealed, "Okay, one thing you should know before we go in there. He's teaching his granddaughter a few magic tricks and she's a bit of a novice at it, so be on your toes."

"You mean Merlin?"

"How did you know?"

"Anti told me about it."

"Oh, okay. And another thing, try not to comment on his beard." He then eyed at Avery, "No offense-"

The grandson snickered then replied, "None taken. Grandma has always gotten on him about shaving it."

Aros nodded then knocked on the door, "Hey! Merlin! It's us!"

A loud thump could be heard on the other side, along with the strong flapping of pages and the sound of spells being cast left and right. The crescendo of sounds ended with the cracking of glass.

"Oops! Sorry!"

"No! That was an invaluable artifact! Penelo! Stop before you break something else!"

The yellow star on the door flashed and the door automatically opened. The moment it did, the a book came flying out towards Aros, but luckily the raven-haired teen was on his toes so he managed to duck the flying projectile, the book just passing inches over his spiky-hair.

"Ha! Missed me-" His boast was cut short by another random book that hit him right in the place where no man wants to be hit, be it by an angry woman's knee or a high-speed object such as a baseball. The poor lad could only groan as he held his precious jewels and fell to the floor in complete agonizing pain.

"Aros!" Sora and Avery said in unison, crouching to his aid.

An elderly man stepped through the door garbed in clothing centered around the color blue: a blue jacket decorated with golden lining, underneath that lay a white button-up shirt with black pants and brown boots, finally, he wore those Harry-Potter style glasses. Speaking of Harry Potter, he also had a wand in his right hand. And of course, he had that ridiculously long grey beard that Aros mentioned. To be honest, he didn't look so bad in his old age.

"Oh dear! I'm sorry about that poor lad, my granddaughter was busy perfecting her skill."

A 15 year-old blonde girl suddenly eased past Merlin and crouched down next to Aros, she wore a white shirt with Hello Kitty on hit, blue jeans, and white tennis shoes. Her hair was wrapped into braids. "Oh my God! Are you okay?! I am really **really** sorry about that! Grandpa was teaching me how to levitate but I sort of lost control and then the books started flying around and-"

"Hmm...nice shot." Sora remarked, chuckling at Aros.

Aros mouthed the words 'fuck you' at him then croaked in pain and replied weakly: "Yep... still a novice."

"Don't worry, I'll go get some ice." Avery said then began to walk off. He was suddenly levitated into the air and pulled into the room.

"No need for that my boy. Take a seat while your grandpa shows that he's still got the skillies!"

"Skillies?!" Every teen except for Aros questioned in unison.

"**Heal!**" He said in a commanding tone, his wand flashed green and Aros was suddenly bathed in a green aura. His groaning ceased as he felt the pain in his valuables no longer torturing him.

"Thanks." Aros said as he rose up off the cold cobblestone floor. As if that and the magic symbols on the floor didn't give off an archaic vibe, there were ancient weapons such as swords, cutlasses and tomahawks mounted on the walls while muskets and bows were either placed in display cases or mounted on racks.

"Oh don't mention it my boy!" The wizard said then grinned, inviting everyone into the room. He then approached Sora inspected his facial features closely while scratching his beard, "So you're Sora... my, how you've grown! How's Akira?"

Sora gasped, "H-How do you...?-"

"I remember when you were just a tiny lad, you looked just like your father. I'll tell you one thing, when your father was coming up, he had that passion for science about him. Your grandfather tried to keep him focused on carpentry but he didn't give up! My condolences for what happened to him. He was a good man."

Sora frowned and looked down at the floor, "Yeah..."

Noticing how awkward the conversation has gotten Merlin cleared his throat then advanced to another subject, "So, Aros has told me that you need a bit of assistance in the magic department. He said it might have something to do with the Heartless?"

Suddenly, "This is War" by 30 Seconds to Mars began to play out of nowhere. Penelo pulled out her blue Iphone, "Sorry about that, my boyfriend Vaan is calling, toodles!" As the blonde answered the call, she bolted upstairs, most likely heading to her room.

Her grandfather sighed, "Kids these days..." he levitated chairs over to where him and everyone else was standing. The room's occupants took a seat as Sora explained to Merlin all that he and the others had been through.

* * *

As the keyblade wielding hero revealed his tale from the very beginning, up above, the sun began to take up a new place in the sky over the city of Hollow Bastion. The shadows slowly adjusted themselves as time passed.

"And that's the last thing remember before I woke up here."

"So that sudden burst of magical energy- that flash of light, you did that?" Merlin asked while taking off his glasses and wiping the lens with a cloth.

"Mhm. You see, the guy I was fighting, Aeon, wanted to reform society through the use of the heartless. But if he did that-"

"It would break the balance between light and darkness." He put his glasses back on.

"Right! So I had absorbed a lot of of dark magic from Karkand, that giant monster, and used it to force Aeon through a wormhole. I think he's still alive in another dimension or something. I think some of the energy from the heartless is still with me and that might be what is stopping me from using my magic."

"Really? How so?"

"It would be better to show you." His skin, his hair, and his clothes turned jet black and his eyes a bright gold, black wisps flowing off his body, "I notice that when I change into Anti-Form, I can see the heart's of others. For some reason, they look pretty different from what you see in science books, they look like light pink spheres."

"Hmmm...interesting, very interesting... well, I can say that you have come to the right place! I shall teach you what I know about the arcane arts, and maybe we can solve this problem yet! But first, we should let Akira know that you're okay. It's going to be difficult to find her in this large city..."

"Yeah..."

"But that's why we have phone books! Avery, go fetch the phone book for me if you please. It should be in the kitchen near the isle. It's a good thing Lea- I mean Axel, gave Avery and the others the grand tour."

"Right!" And with that, Avery climbed the stairs to retrieve the book.

"Wait- Axel?! He's your grandson?!"

"Mhm. Always out and about that one." Merlin chirped, "It's great to have all the family back," Merlin paused then let out a sigh, "Well, most of it anyway..." He frowned.

"Most of it?"

"It's nothing important really. Anwho, I want to thank you lads personally for bringing my grandson back home safe and sound."

Sora grinned, "You're welcome. Thank you for letting us stay here."

"Oh it's the least I can do. Please, stay as long as you like! Believe me, we have plenty of room."

* * *

Plenty of room... if only people like Ansem had that luxury.

The disgruntled blond who was now in more casual apparel, consisting of a black trench coat along with a blue jeans and black boots (still wearing that glove on his right hand) sat in in a bar called "Nooj's Bar & Grill" where he had ran into one of his buddies, Jecht. He had a muscular build, tan skin, and unruly long black hair. He sported a black leather jacket with a white button-up shirt, blue jeans, and black boots.

After taking another sip of his alcoholic beverage, Ansem set his beer back down and continued his story, "And then the asshole fired me, just when I was about to make that breakthrough! 'Results' he said, 'reports' he said!"

"Sorry to hear that man. Need a refill?" Nooj offered. The beige-haired bartender wore a red button-up shirt that revealed some of his chest, glasses, black jeans, and brown shoes.

"Yeah, thanks." Ansem affirmed then sighed, "I guess I'll have to look in the papers for another job..."

"Hey, if you're interested, there's a open spot for a physics teacher at my son's school. It can tide you over until you find something else to do." Jecht offered, he then looked back at the TV screen that was mounted on a wall for convenience. The Hollow Bastion Blitzball team, the Rangers, were playing against the Relay City Bandits, "What are those guys doing?! Double Sides, you dumbasses! Bullshit! How did he miss?! The goal was wide open!"

Ansem chugged down his last beer then put the money on the bar, "I'll catch you guys later." And with that, the blond man walked out, going through the crowd and the grill part of the establishment until he exited through the door, passing by an angry woman with purple eyes and short, blonde hair who wore a purple and white coat along with purple ankle boots.

"**Noojie-Woojie**?! Where are you?!" She shouted loudly, alerting everyone in the bar & grill of her presence.

Nooj's began to sweat, his eyes showing fear, "Sh-Shit..."

"Hey, isn't that your wife, Leblanc?" Asked Jecht.

"No! She is most certainly not my wife! Fuck, she's coming this way, you gotta help me man!" Nooj pleaded.

Jecht nodded as his friend ducked behind the bar. Quickly and tactfully, he vaulted over the bar and began doing whatever the average bartender did as Leblanc approached.

"Jecht? Why are you working the bar? Where's Nooj?"

"Uh...he went to the CVS down the street to pick up a few things and he wanted me to fill in for him. He'll be back in a few." He replied, refusing to make eye contact with her.

Leblanc smirked, "Oh? Well then, I guess I'll just wait here until-"

Suddenly, her "Noojie-Woojie," leaped out from behind the bar and sped past Leblanc at a breakneck pace, shoving through all who stood in his way.

"Fuck! It's not worth it! Out of my way!" And of course, Leblanc was hot on his heels.

"Come back Noojie-Woojie!"

"Stop following me, you crazy bitch!"

"You don't mean that!"

"The hell I do!"

"Love me baby! Love ME!"

Jecht watched them run out of the bar & grill before he took a look at his own situation. After a few seconds, he smiled and grabbed his empty glass and a bottle of beer off the counter.

"Well, I guess Nooj wouldn't mind if I treat myself to some _free_ beer." He said then chuckled as he poured himself a glass.

* * *

**A/N: **Excellent! Now we're getting back into the swing of things with Sora's social life and what not! Let's see now, we got some insight on Ares' back story, which is actually one that will most likely be explored the most. So, what do you guys think of the mix? Kingdom Hearts with Assassin's Creed?

I had to make a lot of changes in this chapter. There were some things I wanted to do but I just couldn't get to them before getting some things out of the way first.

This might change but...

* * *

**On the next chapter of UOU...**

_For the last time, gramps, call me Axel._

_Get more men on the left flank! Keep the 50. cal rollin'!_

_Welcome class. My name is Mr. Price and I will be your Physics teacher for the rest of the school year._

_These group of rebels, they call themselves the Dynami. The government says that if you have any information pertaining to the location of these rogues, please do not hesitate to speak up._


	4. Chapter 4: Putting Out Old Flames

Yeah, this chapter is going to be kinda slow. Not much going on it besides some character development for both Axel, Penelo, and Avery. Sure, seeing Sora hanging out with Merlin and my OC's is fun but this is a Sora x Kairi fic obviously so we must know: What has Kairi been doing for the past month?

Well, here's your answer!

* * *

**Chapter 4: Putting Out Old Flames**

**-Hollow Bastion Residential Area-**

From noon it had gone to dusk and from dusk, it had gone to dawn. With the morning had come grey, dark cloud which blotted out the sun, indicating the possibility of rainfall. The passage of time was a strange concept, a concept that boggles the mind just thinking about it. Some people say, "With all this happening, there must be a God out there somewhere."

To which others reply, "Preposterous! Surely there must be a proper explanation for all this. How can one almighty ruler create all this in just six days?"

Be it as it may, while evolutionists and creationists bicker on about the passage of time and the world and how it was created, it only meant one thing to students like Kairi Strife- it was time to get off her ass go to school…again. Like most other students, the red-haired scythe-wielder wasn't much of a morning person. With her parents gone on another one of their 'business trips' they tasked one of the butlers and maids with making sure that they did what they were supposed to do.

Speaking of scythe-wielding, Kairi had sometimes taken time out of her schedule to practice with Dream-Weaver over the last month, occasionally levitating the random objects that were in her lavish room which was on the second floor of the house. Not only had her levitation improved but so did her constructs, plus she learned that she could fly without the need of a floor panel.

Kairi had thought about all the good she could do with it and how she could help people in trouble, but there was one problem... how was she going to balance that with her school life? On top of that, she has to deal with indoor track practices and what not thanks to Olette, who had suggested she did something in the sports department because that, and her practice with her powers helped keep her busy and helped take her mind off...him.

She was right though, she did need to keep herself busy because for the first couple of weeks after settling in here at Hollow Bastion, she had been in a depressed state and to this day, she still tries to get out of it. Her grades had lowered and her social life had almost been reduced to a point where she wouldn't talk to anyone. And if that wasn't bad enough, in one instance, she had been so depressed that she almost had committed suicide through the use of a kitchen knife but for some reason, when she had it to her neck she just couldn't bring herself to do it. Before she could do anything else, Namine had already stopped her.

This situation had prompted the others to suggest that someone should keep a watch on her until she showed signs of getting better, and because of her suicidal thoughts, she had to go through therapy sessions. They sort of helped, but recently, she had met this one boy who she had opened up to and began talking with. He also knows what it's like to lose a loved one...

On her own, she didn't have the willpower to get up, but the annoying sound of the alarm clock near her changed her mind when it read 6:00. She sighed then started her morning routine, walking into the shower and the warm water from the head curing her of her groggily state the moment the warm water hit her body.

Once her shower was done and, she came out of her room wearing a black long-sleeved shirt that had Samurai Jack on it, dark green cargo pants and red and black high-top sneakers. Worn around her neck was a crystal heart necklace colored pink. Her hair was wrapped into a pony tail.

She trudged down the the hallway past Cloud, who was still straightening up the place after that large party he threw last night. Her and Namine had asked him to tone it down a few times but he was too busy making out with Tifa to respond. They warned him about throwing a late night party on a Sunday but did he listen? No.

After making her way downstairs, she went into the kitchen and saw Namine wearing a white turtleneck with blue denim jeans and white sneakers. She sat at the table eating some pancakes with bacon and some scrambled eggs. Recently their butler has been teaching them how to cook since both sisters had asked the man to.

They figured that they wouldn't have butlers and maids cooking for them all their lives so why not learn how to cook?

"Morning Nam." Kairi said as she got a cereal box, some milk, a spoon, and a bowl and sat down across from her.

"Morning Kai." Namine replied with a yawn then continued, "How much sleep did you get?"

Kairi sighed, "Not much..." She scratched her head. "Good God, I think I still have 'The Boys are Back in Town' by Thin Lizzy still stuck in my head..." Namine giggled and Kairi couldn't help but giggle along with her. She has noticed the way Namine's relationship with Roxas has changed her. She's more open and isn't that shy anymore. Sure, she sometimes has issues branching out but with him backing her up, she gains courage. In fact, that's how she made friends with Paine who is like her, quiet, often keeps to herself; though she can be a bit cynical at times, particularly towards the male population. There are currently rumors circulating around the school about her being a lesbian!

As the two sisters consumed their breakfast, Kairi asked Namine about Roxas and how she was doing with him. That caused the blonde to ramble on about the dates that Roxas took her on and she couldn't help but smile at the spill of romantic details. To think that Namine of all people would be more social than her. She wasn't jealous, she actually was proud. Proud of her and of Roxas for bringing her out of her shell, something that her herself has tried to do for years.

When the two had finished their breakfast, they were about to put their dishes away when the butler told them that he would take care of it and that they should hurry off to school. And the man had a point, the bus could be heard pulling up outside.

Unlike New Hope Academy, the school that they were going to was in the city, so transport was required. Once they had acquired their backpacks, the Strife sisters grabbed their coats off the coat hanger near the door and made their way out of the house and past the beautiful garden, Namine having a white duffel coat and Kairi having a brown double-breasted hooded coat. The sweet scent of the freshly cut grass filled their nostrils as they passed by.

After going through the gates black gates which was the entrance to their new mansion which sat on a hill, they boarded the yellow bus and noticed that most of the seats were filled already, but a blond who sat near the back suddenly stuck his hand up and waved at them, it was none other than Tidus who wore a blue long-sleeved shirt that had the iconic Superman symbol on it, a hero he had been a fan of ever since he was a kid, along with blue jeans and white and red tennis shoes.

"Hey! Over here! We saved you a seat!" Of course, Yuna was sitting next to him, garbed in a white camisole with a lavender blue coat over that. She also wore jeans and black boots that went up to her calves. Near them sat Riku, Selphie, Yuffie, and Wakka. Riku was talking with Wakka about blitzball, specifically about that game that happened yesterday, while Yuffie rambled on about Naruto Shippuden and what not with Yuna and Selphie, who she had somehow manage to pull into the show.

As Kairi and Namine sat down in the seat next to Yuna and Tidus, they paid only slight attention to Riku and Wakka's conversation as they argued about teams.

"Ah, but they still beat the Rangers ya? Now you owe me twenty bucks!" Wakka exclaimed happily as Riku pounded the front chair.

"Damn!" He sighed and frowned, "Okay fine dude, I'll have the money tomorrow." His frown then shaped into a smirk as he looked at Waka, "But just wait until the Rangers go up against the Radiant Garden Crusaders!" The silver-haired teen and the red-orange haired teen exchanged grins and nodded, shaking each others hands.

"Alright, but don't come crying to me when you owe me forty bucks ya?" Wakka replied coolly as he placed his hands at the back of his head and leaned back.

Riku snorted then looked out the window as the bus passed by the houses, "We'll see about that."

To be honest, after all the stuff that has happened, Riku and the others had turned out to be a pretty cool bunch. At first, she thought that they were just acting but they were actually being nice for a change.

Kairi sometimes jumped into their discussions but kept quiet for the most part as the bus quickly left the suburban area and before they knew it, they were in the bustling urban area that was full of opportunities. Towering buildings such as the GALAXIACORP building stood tall over the citizens as they walked the streets of the prospering metropolis. There were also billboards posted on some of the edifices which advertised spectacular achievements in the field of technology such as the Abstergo Industries Entertainment Division which had recently finished development of some sort of Animus gaming console.

Eventually, the bus reached the school and as everyone piled out the bus and walked into the courtyard that was already filled with students.

But as she stepped out, Kairi noticed a few people gathered around a particular spot and there was a lot of commotion in the mix.

'I_ wonder what's going on over there?_' Kairi wondered as the racket captured the whole group's attention. As they walked over there, Kairi came to an abrupt stop when she heard someone say something that made her heart skip a beat.

"I'm telling ya man! Sora is alive!"

The sudden talk about the boy who she lost had enraged her. She began to walk with great pace towards the group pushing and shoving her way through people, ignoring Namine, Tidus, and Selphie, who were all trailing behind her, trying to calm her down. Once she had breached through the barrier of humans, her eyes set on Axel who was conversing with his 'organization' group.

"No bull? You're not kidding?!" Demyx asked. Surprisingly, he had put his Ipod back in his backpack to actually listen to the conversation. The teen with a mullet-style hair-cut had established a reputation as the 'Music Meister' or the 'Sound Freak.' He's the kind of guy who visits I-tunes on a daily basis; from the Beetles to Lil' Wayne, you name it- he's got it.

Axel grinned as he flicked his lighter on and off. Of course, it was against school rules but quite frankly, he didn't give a damn. "Bro I kid you not. Him and a few other guys are chilling at my place right now." His grin got even wider when he noticed Kairi walking towards him. He got up and walked over to her to spread his knowledge. "Kairi! There you are! Good news! Sora is-"

His sharing of the supposedly good news was cut short when Kairi's hand quickly sailed across his cheek. As he put a hand to his now warm cheek, Kairi glared at him as tears started forming in her eyes.

"DEAD! He's **_dead_**!" She boomed as the tears began to descend down her face.

"Kairi, listen to me, he's-"

Said girl had heard enough, "You think that's funny?! Making jokes about him?!" If only the Pyromaniac knew that the girl in front of him possessed a weapon that she could easily behead him with.

The social courtyard had now grown silent. All eyes being on Kairi and Axel. With the atmosphere growing very tense, Tidus placed a hand on Kairi's shoulder and tried to cool her down, "Kairi, you need to calm down. I'm pretty sure Axel didn't mean it like that."

The auburn whipped around viciously and abruptly, "Then what DID he mean it like Tidus?"

The blond was at a temporary loss of words, "Well...um...what I'm trying to say is...uh..." He gave a glance back at Wakka and Riku, hoping for some reinforcements, but the both of them frowned and shrugged.

'Crap, looks like I'm on my own...' he thought to himself as he tried to figure out what to say, lest he face the wrath of an emotionally damaged Kairi.

Clearly, the poor adolescent had to work on his improvisation skills, but he could do that at another time because the cavalry had finally arrived: Xion and Olette. They noticed what was going on and came brushing through the crowd, Olette saving Tidus from having to explain himself, "What Tidus is trying to say is that you should _move_ _on_! Listen, I didn't know Sora for very long, but he was a great guy. Do you think that he would want you living the way you are living these days? I know you're hurting- Roxas is hurting! Lightning is hurting! We're ALL hurting Kairi!"

Suddenly, there was a flash of lightning followed by a crackle of thunder. As the heavens let loose a shower which pelted the earth with mass needles of precipitation, the student body put on their hoods and raised their umbrellas and either retreated into the one of the main buildings or took shelter under the nearby archways.

As Olette and the others hurried over to one of the archways, Kairi went the opposite way to the other archway. Even from across the courtyard, Kairi still locked eyes with Namine, Xion, and Olette. She sniffed then put her hood up and lumbered away to homeroom.

Namine was about to go after her but Xion stopped her and shook her head. The tense atmosphere was broken as there was another flash of lightning and a crackle of thunder. As Namine and the whole group said their goodbyes and walked their separate ways. Demyx, being the last to leave, gave a harsh look at Axel before putting on his hood and walking through the courtyard to his homeroom.

"But he is alive...! C'mon guys, you gotta believe me!"

Suddenly, Penelo walked up to him while pulling down the hood of her coat, the height difference between the two siblings could be easily noticed as Axel was a full head taller than her, "Why did you do that?"

"Sis, we both know that he's alive! Isn't that something worth telling Kairi about?" Asked the lighter carrier as he massaged the place where he was slapped while sitting on the wooden bench that was behind him. Penelo sighed and also sat down next to him.

"It _is_ worth it but... it's something that she will have to see to believe. You can't just go around like some messenger yelling out that Sora is alive. She'll just view you as some pyro-maniacal butt-hole that just wants attention. Remember when she almost killed herself? People have lost enough loved ones, Lea." Axel lowered his eyebrows at the saying of his real name. "Tidus with his mom, Selphie with her cousin Reiji-"

"Us with mom and mad?" Axel scowled abruptly as he and his little sister watched the rain hit the ground.

Penelo glowered briefly but nonetheless continued, "Yeah...but I'm glad that we didn't lose Avery."

The green-eyed sophomore had taken out his favorite lighter that he liked- no, loved to play with. He flicked it on and when the flame came up the flashbacks hit his mind hard. Memories him of his previous home burning down to the ground. Other flames just like this one had destroyed nearly all he held dear. It took him back all the way to that day when things were looking up in this fair city, that was until the riot happened...

* * *

**-Hollow Bastion, 10 years ago...-**

All was calm that night in the metropolitan area. 6-year old Lea and 5-year old Penelo played with their Power Rangers Turbo action figures and Barbie dolls in the living room of their Aunt and Uncle-by-marriage's penthouse.

"Ha! Your house is no match for the mega-zord!" Lea boasted proudly as he maneuvered the Turbo Zord over towards the dollhouse; as the mech towered over the pink house, it cast a shadow on it heralded doom for Barbie and Ken who stood helplessly in their house. Lea charged the unstoppable megazord forward and knocked down the house like it was nothing. Penelo, who was already busy with a few Bratz dolls noticed the downed house and glared at Lea, "Stop that! What did Barbie and Ken ever do to you?"

Lea burst out laughing, "Great work Rangers! Another deadly blow to the girly tyranny!"

"Aunt Erza! Uncle Zangief! Lea's being mean!" Penelo shouted as Lea laughed.

Zangief wasn't paying attention because he was busy flipping through channels, shards of the dialogue came from each show coming through as he flipped.

_"We have a Hulk."_

___"These group of rebels, they call themselves the Dynami. The government says that if you have any information pertaining to the location of these rogues, please do not hesitate to speak up."_

_"Keep the 50. cal rollin'! Get more men moving down the left flank!"_

_"What's up, doc?"_

_"And that was when the baby was found driving the celebrity's car."_

_"Giggity Giggity! Alright!"_

_"TIME FOR TIME FORCE!"_

Lee cheered and danced and sang in perfect sync with his favorite TV show, "Power. RANGERS!... Race into another timeee!~ Chrono Morphers are online!~ Timeless wonders! Fireee and thunder!~ All to save the woooorld!~- Go! Go! Time Force! Time, time, time, for Power Rangers Time Force-" When the channel had been switched to Friday night wrestling, Lea frowned and stopped dancing. "Aww!"

The Red Cyclone himself who sported a short-sleeved blood red t-shirt with the hammer and sickle logo on it, revealing his well-toned muscles and his showing his love for the Motherland. He also wore green woodland camouflage shorts and red shoes. He sat on the couch trying to peak around Lea and get a good look of the Friday night wrestling match and didn't even bother to look away from the TV as he said: "Lea. Be nice to sister. How am I supposed to watch good match that reminds me of time I crushed man's skull like sparrow's egg between thighs?" The Russian professional wrestler asked with his Russian accent evident in his voice, grinning as he slapped his right thigh with his hand.

"But I'm not even being mean!"

Penelo snorted and stood her doll house back up, "Meanie!"

Lea growled. "Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"ARE TOO!"

Their bickering ceased when there was a distinct orange flash that shined through window, "Whoa, cool!" Axel said as they both rushed over to the window and pulled it up. As they gazed out into the dark city, they could see and hear a series of orange explosions occurring in the distance.

Zangief sauntered up behind them, sighing, "Children, I love cold air and view just as much as next guy but Erza doesn't want penthouse cold. She gets...violent and scary and-" His eyebrows raised when he perceived what they were staring at, this caused him to mutter a few words in Russian language.

"What's going on out there?" Erza demanded as she came out of the kitchen wearing a white camisole with black jeans and brown slippers, her hair being let down. Zangief was so tall that she couldn't look over his shoulder, so she instead peaked around him. Once she saw what was going on, she shuddered, moving back slowly, "Oh my God..." Erza jetted frantically over to the apartment telephone and darted her fingers rapidly over the number pad. The redhead finally picked up the phone and made the call and waited for someone to answer it. Usually, Erza was as tranquil and level-headed as the ocean but now she could feel her heartbeat getting quicker and quicker as she waited for an answer.

She heard the phone on the opposite end get picked up and the person who said hello was none other than her sister, "Rayne?! Rayne are you okay?!"

"_We're fine! It's the rebels, the Dynami! It all started as a huge riot but...but there was a bit of gunfire and- and now it's turned into a warzone!- Oh God- they're coming towards the house!_" There was a distinct crack that sounded as if she had dropped the phone, her voice could still be head though. "_Maya! Get Merlin and Avery out of here!_"

_Boom!_

Erza turned to her husband and gestured for him to go into the kitchen with the kids to which the Red Cyclone nodded, "Alright kids, to kitchen we go." As the Red Cyclone pushed the kids along, the kept standing in place but their uncle still kept prodding them along without much effort.

"Uncle Zangief, what's happening to mommy?" Penelo kept asking that as she tried to get around him to get to Erza. But Zangief kept crouching down and blocking her with his arms so she couldn't get by. While he was warding off Penelo, Lea noticed the divide between Zangief's skull-crushing legs and walked back a few steps before running straight towards the 7-feet tall man and sliding right through the parting. He learned that move from his father, who was a Major in the United States Air Force and from his best friend, Charlie; That...and he learned some things about John Wayne and American automobiles on the side...

Once he had got past his big uncle, Lea made a beeline for his aunt, leaping up and snatching the phone from her, "Mom?! Are you there?!"

"_Lea? Oh thank God you're okay. Baby, listen to me. Mommy and daddy have to go away now-"_

"WHY? Why do you have to go?!" Erza was about to take the phone from Lea but when she noticed that now he was crying. Her green-eyed nephews tears told her all that she needed to know and she leaved him be.

Lea heard sniffling over the phone as he walked over to the window and stared at the raging inferno on the horizon, "_Lea?"_ This time it was a male voice.

"D-Dad?"

_"Take good care of Avery and Penelo. We love you, son." _

Suddenly, there was another orange glimmer in the distance that could be seen as plain as day and the phone disconnected.

...

...

As Lea took the phone from his ear, a cold wind blew in from the night and kissed Lea's face. Still, the feeling was omitted because the weeping six-year old boy felt something worse than any feeling that the chill of the night could bring. He felt _dread_.

As Zangief comforted Penelo, Erza had placed a hand on Lea who had quickly turned towards her and hugged her, his tears traveling down her black turtleneck as she crouched down to his level and returned the hug with a warm, comforting embrace.

* * *

**-Hollow Bastion, Present Day-**

It wasn't until the late bell rang that Axel snapped out of the tragic memory. The flame still burning ever bright, he looked at the water fountain and brooded until he knew the deed that he had to accomplish. He rose up and walked out into the rain, not even bothering to put his hood on. As the rain pelted his head and assaulted the fire, he lumbered over to the fountain, oblivious to Penelo's protesting.

"What are you doing?"

He stopped when he arrived at the edge of the fountain. Looking at his favorite lighter one more time before looking at the fountain, he held his hand out and let the metal object fall into the water. He didn't even flinch as thunder and lightning occurred as he stood there, his hair blowing in the breeze. He then retired back under the archway where Penelo was standing.

"...Why did you do that? That was your favorite-"

"I don't need it anymore..." He responded blankly. Penelo searched his eyes for the real reason and when she had found it, she gave a small grin to which Axel responded with a grin of his own. The two siblings then began their journey to the classroom, not really caring that they were tardy.

"Ah-Ah- Achoo!" Axel had exclaimed this involuntarily as he accidentally sneezed on his sister.

As Axel sniffed, Penelo shuddered as his germs spread into the air around her, "Ewww! See? That's what happens when you don't put your hood up: you catch a cold!" The now sick redhead chuckled at how she was acting and shrugged.

"What? I'm not the kind of person who usually gets sick."

"Now you might have got me sick..."

"Ha! Sucks for you! Now Vaan wouldn't want to be anywhere near you!" The moment Axel had pointed this out, she had growled and jabbed him square in the arm.

"OW!"

Suddenly, the two had realized they had arrived at one of their scheduled classes. Penelo at least since Axel had biology. Penelo opened the door only to reveal Ansem standing there introducing himself to the class.

"Welcome class. My name is Ansem Price and I will be your Physics teacher for the rest of the school year-" He noticed the door had opened and saw Penelo and Axel standing there, "So you must be Penelo, sorry, but I have to mark you tardy."

The blonde sighed and turned to Axel but he was actually already walking to his class, putting a hand up in the air to say 'see ya later'. She grinned then walked into the classroom where a lesson about kinetic energy awaited her.

* * *

So, have any of you guys figured out who Axel's father is? If you haven't yet then here's another clue: He's also in Street Fighter except he's the character meant to represent the country that you see often see going after Russian terrorists in games such as Battlefield or Call of Duty.

Speaking of that, what is it with people pitting USA against Russia anyway? Sure, having theories about WW3 and what countries will be fighting in it can be fun, but c'mon now. I'm sure that by today, Mikhail Kalashnikov, Eugene Stone and James Sullivan aren't really surprised by the popularity of the M-16 and the AK-47 when the next Call of Duty or Battlefield comes out.

And yes, that's right. I paired up Erza with Zangief. I find it funny having a supposedly fearless 7-feet tall professional Russian wrestler being scared of his own wife. (That's right, come get me Russia and Fairy Tail fans. ;P)

Has anyone else picked up on who Maya is? She is also from Street Fighter as well. And I definitely know that you guys know who Rayne is.

Hehe...Power Rangers Turbo was my favorite coming up as a kid, I don't know, I just liked their costumes. Seriously, back then, Power Rangers was the shit! So, if I have any fans of the PR's here today... I have one thing to ask: What was your favorite Power Rangers era?

Until next time!

Oh, and I decided not to add quotes for the next chapter because I sometimes tweak the plot and notice that some of these quotes don't really fit where they should so...I apologize but...

* * *

**Next on UOU... **

**Chapter 5: Modern or Arcane?**


	5. Chapter 5: Modern or Arcane?

**A/N:** Sorry for taking so long with this one guys, school has really been a pain in the butt recently...

* * *

**Unwanted or Unheard: Project Olympus**

**Chapter 5: Modern or Arcane?**

* * *

_Ring!_

Ah, the iconic but also cliché 3:00 bell. It is the savior of all High school students, a herald bringing news of the end of the dreaded seven hours in the world of academia. Outside, the violent storm had cleared up and the sun came out, accompanied by skies that were painted a gay blue.

"Alright, remember to review what we went over today for the quiz on Thursday." Even though most of the freshmen weren't going to do it, Ansem reminded them anyway. After the students cleared out, the blond sat down in his chair, he pulled open one of the drawers and took out a syringe that contained blue liquid with black particles swimming around. It had '**ION-7**' labeled on it. Just as he was about to open it, he was forced to put it away quickly because someone was opening the door. Through it came a girl with emerald green eyes and brown hair drawn back into a pink ribbon. She wore a red jacket with a dark violet shirt underneath, a dark brown skirt, and brown boots with white socks that went up to her calves. The brunette was none other than Aerith Strife.

Along with teaching physics, he also had to teach 10th grade biology, the classes being comprised mostly of sophomores with a few freshmen here and there. The fifteen year-old girl in front of him just happens to be one of the best students in biology.

Not being aware of what he did in the slightest, Aerith put on a warm grin and approached his desk. "Hey Mr. Price, my sister is going to be out for a day or two, so I wanted to come by and pickup any work she'd have to do."

He nodded and got a pen and paper to begin writing the assignments. "So the storm this morning got to her too eh? First Axel, then Penelo, and now Kairi."

The brunette's grin turned into an uneasy frown when she remembered what was _really_ going on with her, "Well, something like that..." Ansem had noticed how wearily she said this. He had paused his writing to study her saddened expression and knew that this wasn't his business. After a few moments of writing, he handed the paper to her.

"Okay, there will be a few questions in these sections that she will have to answer. Most of it is about kinetic energy and inertia, what we covered in class today." He had pointed this out while advancing over to the black board erasing the information off of it.

As the biology/physics teacher erased with his left, Aerith couldn't help but stare at his idle right hand. For some reason, he always wears a coat and a black glove on his right hand, even when he is indoors and teaching. Whether he is writing or simply pointing out something on the board, he does _everything_ (masturbation unknown) with his left hand. It wasn't her place to ask, but she couldn't help but wonder why.

"Okay, thanks! See you tomorrow!" She chirped. As she exited the room, waving goodbye to her biology teacher, the adult had returned the wave once again with his left hand. A gory thought had rushed into her head about what his right hand looked like under that glove and she couldn't help but shudder slightly as she walked out, closing the door behind her.

It wasn't the first time he had received that reaction, so he was semi used to it. Ansem locked the door to prevent anyone else from walking in on the taking of his 'medicine.' He sat down at his desk once again, rolling up the left sleeve of his coat and the shirt underneath, pulling out the syringe that he hid.

He was about to do what he needed to do but hesitated as the sunlight from a nearby window reflected off of it. With the amount of daylight decreasing by the second, he didn't waste any more time. He readied the needle, pulling it back before driving it towards his skin and-

_Snikt!_

The now blood-tipped syringe was suddenly dropped to the floor and rolled away from Ansem as he hacked up a bit of blood and was brought to his knees. He could feel his heart working overtime as a series of immense vibrations roared throughout his body that made his very skin crawl when they slammed into his right arm. He rose up and began to lumber over to the microscopes in the back of the classroom in a very incoherent fashion. Once he got there, he toppled over a few miscellaneous objects before he found a knife and used it to get a tiny pint of blood from his left arm. As he pasted the crimson liquid onto the plate and put it under the microscope's lens, he looked through the scope and zoomed in further only to see a multitude of black microscopic robots sailing around the blood in a calm circuit, interacting with blood cells as they went.

_'__Nothing out of the ordinary happening with the Nanites...just a mere side effect, that's all...__' _His thoughts and self-analysis were paused by the abrupt ringing of his phone. As he picked it up, he noticed who was calling.

'_Nina...I know I made a promise not to use ION-7 but... it's the only way.'_ He had promised his girlfriend that he wouldn't use the drug anymore. When he had promised that, he had seen magic as an alternate alternative to his issue.

As the phone kept ringing, he remembered his old job. How his fellow researchers would ridicule him and say that he was blindly chasing after something that would either be in a child's fantasy world or a comic book. When Sharpe gave him the pink-slip, it gave him a new perspective on the word 'magic.'

It hurt him to admit it, but those people that ridiculed him? They were right, magic _is _nothing but a fairy tale. And to think that he was chasing this frivolous dream for so long that it made him think: when he thought they were fools for mocking him, who was _really_ the fool?

Magic is overrated. The very thought of someone with some large hat solving all his problems with just a flick of his magic wand is just plain ridiculous.

There's only one thing that can _truly_ help humanity.

**Technology.**

It's what has assisted in the fighting and ending of wars. What has moved humanity forward into the future, where there is no need to look back at the past. Something that's always growing, changing into something better.

It helps change him into something better too. Well, at least better than what he was years ago...

Ansem had felt some tingling sensation on his left arm and looked at it only to see the incision that he made with the knife being healed.

"What the?-"

He heard footsteps in the hall, somebody walking by and talking, probably to someone on their cellphone.

"So, what time do you want me to be there?"

Suddenly, he saw waves of different colors come through the door, as they passed by, he could here a lovely female voice, _"Harold will be out of the house by eight, after that...I'm all yours."_

Ansem backed up slowly from the waves as they went past him until he bumped against the counter behind him. Are these illusions? Was he going insane? He closed his eyes and counted to ten and when he opened them up, he sighed with relief.

'_Phew...for a second there, I thought that I was actually seeing-__'_

A few waves colored oranges made their way into his line of sight. At first he heard static but then he heard music from multiple genres.

_"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day. Never spoke to folks round' him, didn't have too much to say!~ No one dared to ask his business, no one dared to make a slip. The stranger there among em' had a big iron on his hip. Big iron on his hip!~"_

Ansem's moment of relief was cut short. He frantically gathered his things (including ION-7), and exited the classroom (not before cleaning the blood off the floor and clearing that microscope). As the blond made his way outside, he kept perceiving multiple Electromagnetic Waves that were not only diverse in spectra but in energy and frequency as well. Not only did they patrol low to the ground, but they were also high in the sky. His inner 'radio' suddenly decided to tune to a different song.

_"To the right! To the left! We will fight to death! To the Edge of the Earth! It's a brave new world! It's a brave new world! It's a brave new world!"_

His pace got quicker and quicker, the randomized sequence music torturing his senses. Before he knew it, he found himself rushing toward his car, passing by a trio of teachers who were eating in the courtyard.

"Hey! Ansem! Where are you going? There's a meeting scheduled in 15 minutes!" One of them reminded him.

Luckily, the rock music had silenced in his head just in time for him to hear his fellow teacher, "Uhh... I've got something important to take care of! But I promise, I'll be present at the next one!"

"Important? He's only been here for a day..."

The only female in the trio grinned as she saw Ansem's backside, "And yet he's so young...so energetic...so hot! Just look at him, Frank! He looks like he's in his twenties!" The two males raised an eyebrow at her surprise.

"Jesus Deborah, you do realize he HAS a girlfriend, right?"

"Really? Who?"

"Nina Williams- wait, he mentioned this when we were eating with him at lunch. Were you even listening?"

"..." Deborah couldn't reply because she was still admiring Ansem from afar, fantasizing about the day when he would be hers and only hers- and not belong to this 'Nina Williams.' As she daydreamed, she didn't even notice the hand that waved in front of her face.

"Deborah? Hello?! EARTH TO DEBORAH!" Seeing that he wasn't getting to her, he sighed and face-palmed, "...Ah crap, first my English students... and now this..."

The male next to him shrugged and said, "Well, that's what you get for teaching them about Shakespeare."

Frank turned to him with a disgruntled look, adjusting his glasses.

"Screw you, Kyle."

* * *

**-Meanwhile, at the Freeman Mansion-**

Axel and Penelo had arrived home by bus and entered into their home after a long, grueling day at school. Once they made it inside, they were shocked when they were greeted by their grandmother, Nimue- who looked forty years younger and had a charming and well-endowed feminine physique.

She had eyes as blue as a clear lake with long brown hair that traveled down to about her back. She wore a cerulean blue turtleneck with black shorts and flip-flops of the same color.

"Hey you two! How was school?" When Nimue had asked this, she noticed her grandchildren's looks and her cheeks reddened when she started to explain, "Your grandfather had this youth potion locked away in his basement and I sort of...'stumbled' upon it." She noticed both their looks telling her she should be ashamed of herself but she crossed her arms and snorted, "What? I couldn't help it!"

Penelo had felt something tickle her nose and she had turned away from her relatives just in time to- "Ah...ah...ACHOO!"

Axel rolled his eyes at his sister, putting his hands behind his back and acting in a more mature light, "See Penelo? This is what you get for walking out into the rain! Grandma told us time and time again that you would catch a cold, but did you listen? Noooo!~"

Said girl balled her fist, venomous words ready to be launched off the tip of her tongue, "What?! Don't blame this on me, Lea! You're the one who-" She turned away again, "ACHOO!"

He grinned from ear-to-ear and solemnly declared: "I rest my case."

Suddenly, there was a streak of green and black that passed by Nimue, speeding through the foyer.

"Hey guys! Bye guys!" Sounded a male voice swiftly as it sped by.

"Was that Zach?" Asked Axel as he looked over Nimue's shoulder.

She sighed and nodded, "It's nice that him, Ares and Roy decided to help out around here, but I think that Zach needs to slow down. He had already tripped four times on the wet floors while the butlers were cleaning and-" She quickly cycled around and muttered some enchanted words of arcane origin, causing a barrier of ice to come up from the floor.

A couple moments later, Zach came zooming through the foyer only to be stopped cold (no pun intended) by the thick wall. The brown-haired speedster couldn't help but let out a yelp as he slammed onto his back.

"Zach, what have I told you about running around the mansion?"

He gave a sheepish grin while rubbing the top of his head which was covered by his tousled hair, "Err... watch for pedestrians?" Nimue had gave him 'the look' and he sighed and surrendered, "I could trip, fall and seriously injure myself..."

She nodded and raised an eyebrow at him, urging him to continue. "And?"

"And I could possibly hurt someone if I crash into them..."

"AND?"

"And I could- hold on, there's more?" He gave her a confused look and scratched his head, "Sorry, I don't have that good of an attention span...heh, I guess it's me and little brother both. I remember when..." Everyone had noticed the sudden shift in his comical nature when he paused, he had puffed out a sigh and sat down on the first step of the grand staircase.

Penelo had noticed a tear run down his cheek even though he had quickly wiped away due to typical 'pride system' that the male population seems to posses these days, "You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

"I just need time...that's all. And when I'm ready," He gave her a reassuring smile," it would be nice to have someone talk with." Penelo couldn't help but return the smile as she looked into those dark-brown irises of his.

Suddenly, Zach sniffed and the pleasing scent of hamburgers had filled his nostrils and he jumped off the step his stomach had begun to growl, demanding satisfaction. "Are those hamburgers I smell?"

Axel licked his lips in delight and jetted right into Zach, pushing him down to the ground and making a bee line into the kitchen. "Out of my way! Those burgers are as good as mine!"

Zach snarled and quickly got up in a sudden blur, "Not if I have anything to say about it!"

Nimue chuckled and remarked: "Men, all of them grow large appetites..."

Penelo giggled and finished her sentence, "But some grow them faster than others."

The brown-haired speedster, who was supposed to be the 'fastest teen alive' took major offense to that remark and gave a mock glare at Penelo, "Hey! Who are you callin' slow?"

She smirked, "The person that's currently losing a race to a pyromaniac."

"Oh we'll see who looses." With just one step, he was gone in a blur.

"Burgers, burgers, burgers!" Axel chanted this loudly as he blazed down the hallway. What the happy burger-lover wasn't expecting next was to get blitzed in his side and end up on the marble floor. His assailant was none other than his younger brother, Avery.

"Not so fast brother! If anyone is going to get the first burger around here it's going to be me!" Usually, Avery was reserved and quiet but when the word burger is mentioned and he's racing against his brother, his blood suddenly boils with competition.

Zach had already brushed past the Freeman brother's and made his way into the kitchen only to gasp when he found a certain spiky-haired blond with electrolytic blood already taking a liking to the delicious, juicy hamburgers, "What in the-"

Axel and Avery had caught up with Zach and also caught Roy in the act, "Scumbag! UNHAND THOSE BURGERS!" Axel boomed, Avery nodding in agreement with him.

Roy turned around and gave them a greedy smirk, revealing the dozen of those precious burgers he carried in his arms, "Oh yeah? And which one of you bozos is going to make-" What he wasn't expecting was all three of them to blitz him at once. He went crashing down to the floor in protest, shouting: "Hey! Cowards! What happened to fighting on one on one?!"

"Pfft! Keep your code of honor! We believe in overwhelming force!" Zach had spoken for the entire trio as they wrestled the blond for control of the delicious sandwiches.

* * *

**-Reverse Twilight City-**

As the four-way struggle for the burgers raged on in the mansion's kitchen, Merlin had transported himself, Ares, Sora, Aros,and Reverse-Sora into the gloomy but familiar urban area that the latter had called 'home' ever since he faced (and lost) to his would-be successor in this very square.

Since he started training under Merlin yesterday, Sora still couldn't use his keyblade or magic. He had also decided to hold off on calling his family

Ares had tagged along, not only to be a prospective sparring partner but because this city was one of the very few memories he had. It may not look exactly like the one he had supposedly fought in, but he still wanted to see what it looked like before all the fighting.

As the group paced through the blackened streets, Anti decided to lay down the law to everyone: "Alright, listen up. You're in **my** city right now and we're all pretty chill here, so there's only a few rules: One, don't touch my crack or I'll crack your bones.

"Two, no lame-ass mainstream rap, only the classics."

"Three, no Batman movies from the 90's, and if I hear a reference to one of Arnold Schwarzenegger's puns as Mr. Freeze, once I get my Oblivion back, I will cut your balls off, and make a quick 10,000 bucks off of E-Bay."

"And four, Metallica is and always will be, the shit."

Sora had already waved him off, "Uh... yeah...right..." He then advanced on to the front of the group where Merlin was. "So why did you bring us here?"

"I wanted to test a hypothesis about Sora's magic trouble." Merlin returned, everyone bringing their brief trek to a halt. He turned to Sora and stated his thoughts: "I think the reason you three are having so much trouble using magic is not just the dark energy, but also your focus."

"My focus? But I am focused." Sora stated, his eyes briefly trailing off to the buildings that caused him to recall vague memories.

The elder wizard rubbed his beard as he examined the boy, "No. I suspect there's more to it than that, is there something troubling you...what are you afraid of?"

"What? Afraid? I'm not afraid of anything." Sora's speedy defense only heightened Merlin's curiosity and he kept on pressing.

"The best way to exclude the darkness is to relieve yourself of fear and doubt. Do you have any doubts? You seem troubled-"

"I'm not troubled. I'm fine."

Aros had noticed Sora's reactions to Merlin's questions and narrowed his eyes at the brunette when he had realized the answer. "No. He's right. You are troubled about something."

Sora raised an eyebrow at him. "What are you talking about?-"

Aros advanced towards him, continuing the confrontation, "It's Aeon, isn't it? So he HAS gotten to you! All that crap about that new society? His foresight on you getting incarcerated? You must have figured 'oh, he must be right about this so he must be right about all the other stuff too.'"

"He's not getting to me! He's insane! A psycho! He needed to be stopped and we did just that!" When Sora had said this, he raised his voice a bit in slight annoyance.

Aros had taken notice of this and continued poking at him verbally, "Stopped him...at the complex! All those people that died from that explosion... so that's why it's taking you so long! You ARE afraid!"

"..." Sora was unable to come up with a proper retort, he turned away.

"You're afraid to wield the keyblade again because you're afraid that more people will die when you try to protect them, just like those people in the explosion."

Anti took this time to step in, "So let me get this straight, the only reason we don't have our magic and keyblades back is because he's being a straight-up pussy about it?!"

"Vulgar language aside... yes." Aros clarified then continued, "And now what you're trying to do is use this as an escape! You figured that now that Aeon's gone, you can just go back to being normal even though the government is obviously planning something big. Heck, they tried to come after your dad and killed him over some formula! Yeah that's right, I remember it- and you don't want to deal with that!"

The mentioning of his father had caused Sora to grit his teeth as he once again remembered the past. He did a quick 180 and glared at him, "You think I **chose** to be born this way?!" This sudden outburst had rendered the light version of his speechless, "Everything was great until you two came along! I was-"

"Had the girl of your dreams? Living out your fantasy? All that High school fantasy crap without any spicy Degrassi-like drama?"

Sora gave a nasty look at Anti who dared to speak. "YOU!" The venom in his voice was evident, "If you hadn't kidnapped Kairi, then none of this would have happened! Twilight City wouldn't be in ruins, people wouldn't have died and the Heartless and Aeon would've never existed!"

Anti paused for a second then shrugged nonchalantly, "What? I was bored!"

Now that comment really set Sora off, "You. Were. BORED?!" Anti would have had a punch to the jaw coming his way if it wasn't for Ares, who was holding him back with relative ease due to superior strength.

Aros got in front of Sora and attempted to reconcile with him, "Hey, it could have been worse! He made up for his mistakes when he decided to fuse back with you."

"AND NOW YOU'RE DEFENDING HIM?!"

"Hey, I agree that he is the biggest asshat to ever walk this earth, but at least he helped us out. Otherwise, there wouldn't even **be** an earth right now."

"That still doesn't make up for-" His sentence failed to be completed when fingers had wrapped around his neck and he was suddenly propelled backwards at a speed that surpassed a sports car going at even the highest speeds. Before he knew it, his back was up against a brick wall and he could see Ares standing there holding him up against it.

"I don't know what's going on here, but I have something to say. And you're gonna listen." Sora couldn't do anything but. Just by feeling that sudden rush, he could tell that Ares was just as strong- if not stronger than Anti-Form.

The 7-foot tall adolescent had noticed Sora's calm state and continued, "If it wasn't for you and the others, I would have been stuck in that pod for who knows how long. For all I know, I could have been born in that thing. But you? You've got friends, family- a girlfriend? At least you have something to **live** for. It doesn't matter **how** or **why** you were born. Question is, how are you going to **deal ****with it?**"And with that, he released him. When he did, Sora could feel something jingle in his pocket when his feet had touched the ground.

He went into his pocket and found that the item in there was a familiar star-shaped lucky charm.

The **wayfinder**.

The same charm Kairi had given him before he sent her onto that boat.

A reminder of the promise that he made to her.

A promise that he intends to keep.

As the semi-powerless keyblade wielder retrieved the sacred cornerstone of his promise, Ares had extended a helping hand to him and he took it. In a way, he was right. He did have to deal with it somehow.

Sora gave Ares a nod and he did the same thing back. Walking over to Aros who had his arms crossed, he made his decision known: "I'm going to get our magic and keyblades back. But after that, I don't care what you or Anti does with them because I'm **done**." After saying what he needed to say, he walked over to Merlin as Anti fused with him and he went into his Anti-Form.

Merlin examined him. Looking at those menacing golden eyes of his, he could see tragedy. He couldn't help but notice the gloomy aura around him, the ink black wisps that reached for the sky.

He had changed a lot over the years. When he saw him as a child, he noticed that there was this bright aura around him, one of happiness and light. But now it's just darkness and grief.

Even though he may be reclaiming a lost part of him for different reasons, Merlin couldn't help but grin because he knew that he was just finding his way back to the light.

Merlin activated a beam of light on his wand, "Are you ready?" Asked he. Sora was walking up to him when he decided to just sprint past him all of a sudden and head towards the light portal that they had used to get here in the first place.

"And just where is he going?!" Aros protested, he rushed after Sora and followed him into the portal as Merlin stood there and scratched his beard in confusion.

He then remembered what Sora had told him about the wayfinder and understood what he was doing. "But, it seems that he has to find his way to something else first. I guess training can wait until then." He turned to Ares who was gazing at the rooftops with a troubled look on this face.

"Why the long face my boy?"

Ares snapped out of his trance and looked at Merlin, "You have a lot of history back at the mansion...do you mind if I study that? "

Merlin smiled at his curiosity. He liked him already,"Of course you can! But I have to ask, what do you expect to find."

"Don't know. I hear from the others that there are a lot of beautiful places on this world. Zach even said that he was planning on running to China. All I know about the world is from pictures and stuff."

"I figured...well... maybe I could learn more about them then maybe go out and see what's out there. And probably find out what my name is..." Out of his pocket he grabbed a pair of dog-tags and showed them to him. "This is the only clue I have so far. I found around my neck yesterday.

"May I have a look?"

Ares handed the dog-tags to him and Merlin adjusted his glasses to get a better view. The tags read:

_"Ares"_

_SP-1 _

_Handler: PSICOM_

_Blood Type: B_

* * *

Sora had ran back upstairs only to get passed by Zach as he entered the hallway and Axel about to pass by him as well.

"Come back here!" Axel cried, slowing down until he felt the need to catch his breath. He hunched over and took a breather. "Please...?" He looked to his left and noticed Sora but the appearance didn't phase him. When you have a grandfather who happens to be an awesome wizard, you get used to this kind of stuff real fast. "Yo! Sora what's happenin'?"

"Axel, do you ride the bus?"

"Yeah, I do. Why?"

"Okay, do you know where Kairi lives?"

He nodded,"Of course! We ride the same bus and she's just two stops before me and Penelo. I'll write down her address." As the redhead and the brunet made their way to where the college ruled paper was stored, Roy had passed by them with eyes full of electrical charges, followed by Avery.

"When I get my hands on that numb-skull, those burgers are as good as mine!" Roy declared.

"Not if I get them first!" Avery retorted, while shoving against Roy.

Roy smirked and nudged him aside. "HA! Forget it kid, you may have powers but you've still got a lot to learn!" As the blond said this, the electricity he was generating was directed to his nerves, stimulating them and giving him an extra burst of speed that Avery just couldn't keep up with.

* * *

**A/N:** Yeah, I had to make Ares do SOMETHING because I noticed he was slowly fading into the background. Plus, his name needs to be found out sooner or later or else he might as well just be called...well...Ares.

So far, writing Sora and the rest of my OC's have been fun! I just have to delve in there and take the Mary Sue out of em' piece by piece.

Now what to do with Ansem... I wonder...

* * *

**Next on UOU...**

**Chapter 6: Keeping a Promise**


	6. Chapter 6: Keeping a Promise

**Unwanted or Unheard: Project Olympus**

**Chapter 6: Keeping a Promise**

* * *

Perception.

Everyone has one and they can differ depending on the person in question.

For example, to the average person, a suburban area filled with rows upon rows of houses and some trees may look like a normal neighborhood to some...

But for acrobatic meta-humans like Sora?

Oh yeah, this was his sandbox while Hollow Bastion City was practically his playground. He casually leaped from house-to-house, occasionally coming across tree branches and annoying bird nests and squirrels. And even at times- the dreaded bee-hive.

As he strode across the roof of another house, there was a car coming down the street that was occupied by a mother and her 13 year-old son, Max. As his mother blathered on about her wishes of him being more social and leaving his comic-book fantasies behind, he was watching Spectacular Spider-Man on his phone, grinning as the theme song channeled through his earphones.

"All I'm saying is that maybe it's time that you start socializing with kids your age, honey. What about Jeremy? Jeremy seems like a nice boy." Offered his mother. Billy didn't hear her, but he noticed a hand expression come from her and sunk even lower into his seat. However, his spirits were brightened when he noticed a hooded figure traveling on the roof of a house over on the right-hand side. He put his face up against the glass as he viewed the mysterious acrobat in awe, watching him traverse the building with such grace and ease.

On his final jump, he had executed two back-flips before sticking the landing on a flag-pole near the local church.

"Cool!" Max exclaimed. This caused his mother to grin even though she was unaware of what was taking place.

"Really? You want to play the tuba? That's the spirit, honey! Okay, we'll get you signed up for it tomorrow, kay?" Saying this, the mother was now grinning ear to ear, happy that she had asked her son to about playing an instrument.

It wasn't hard for Sora to balance on the pole. The flag under him was the flag of the Twilight Republic. Which had orange and black accents with a grey north star in the far right hand corner.

"I really owe Axel for this." Sora said to himself as he took out the neighborhood map and the paper with Kairi's address on it. Both of the contents were folded in his pockets.

_'Okay, so Kairi's house should be on Krypton St.-'_ Sora cancelled that thought and adjusted the map to correct himself, "Holy crap, they have a Krypton St.? Never-mind that," he glanced at the street and address and cursed his sense of direction, "Oh, Celestial St..."

"Awesome, now can we _please_ get the hell out of here?" Anti said internally.

Aros, who was also resonating within Sora's body upturned his nose at his polar opposite's saying of the word 'please'. "_Since when did you say please? And why are you in such a rush_?"

"_..._"

"_Well?_" He advanced.

"_...I have a fear of churches alright?!_" He admitted quickly.

There was a moment of silence between all three of them prior to Aros breaking out in laughter, "_Bw-Bwahahaha! Churches?! Seriously?! That's your fear?_" He taunted.

Anti growled and was prompt in his retort, "Shut up! At least _I _can swim!" As the opposites continued bickering, Sora wafted out heavily then continued his journey towards Kairi's place, enjoying the feeling of the wonderful afternoon breeze as it brushed against his ink-black skin.

This brought him back to the times when he was traversing across the buildings of Twilight City in it's darkest hour.

Finally, he had perched on the branch of a tree which stood across the street from a mansion while not as big as Merlin's, was still a beautiful mansion none the less. Like some of the other houses in the area, it had occupied the top of a small hill. Of course, like Kairi's previous home, the entrance was gated- what mansion isn't gated these days?

He made his way towards the fence and leaped over it with relative ease. He traveled swiftly across the picturesque lawn, passing by the beautiful decorations that he didn't really give a damn about. When he came to the front porch, he noticed a pair of roman-styled columns and ran up one of them to cling to the wall of the house.

"Okay, two floors but a crap-load of windows. Better get to it." Once he finished his observation, the wall-crawler scaled around the second floor windows and found different rooms of the Strife's all retaining to each individual's personality.

_'Black and white? A sword case? Video games stacked up neatly? Yeah, definitely Cloud's room.'_ Sora thought as he took in the detail of the room and moved on to the next window.

_'White room, paintings, drawings, canvases, yup, this room without a doubt belongs to-'_ Suddenly he gasped inwardly and he could feel abrupt movement in between his thighs as his cheeks were lit up with a bright crimson color.

"N-N-Namin-" He didn't have time to say the blonde's name before he had he had lost his balance and fell into the bushes below which cushioned his unexpected immersion.

The window above had been swiftly pushed up and the aforementioned female who's body was wrapped in only a blue towel, peeked out and scanned for any signs of perverts. But the only thing out there were birds flying around, the smell of pies, and the beautiful sunset that painted the skies a mixture of scarlet and blue.

"Odd...I thought I heard someone..." The blonde just assumed that she was hearing things and pulled the window back down.

As she did, Sora had emerged out from the bushes ungracefully, with his hair now thick with leaves. Images of the talented artists' well-lotioned bare thighs and curves surged through his mind. Sora knew that was his brother's girlfriend but hot damn... even with a petite body like hers, the way she bent over and slid into those elegant white panties to cover that nice well-curved rear of hers was a sight to behold.

If Roxas knew what he was doing, he would probably butcher him on the spot, but they way she she looked...damn...just...just goddamn! Sora bit his bottom lip as he tried to imagine Kairi in that pose- what? He shouldn't be thinking about this now! He has more important things to-

"_Missionary. Definitely._" Aros had said this straight-up out of the blue, breaking Sora's starstruck trance.

"_Screw that shit. I'd wreck that bitch while she's on all fours._" Anti declared wholeheartedly.

Sora narrowed his eyes and continued up the wall again and muttered, "You guys _do_ realize she has a boyfriend, right?"

"_That's funny, I don't remember sharing her._" Anti returned.

"Since when did she belong to you?"

* * *

**-Kairi's Room-**

Kairi sat at her little desk doodling whatever came into her mind at the time. She had already drew things like lightning bolts and explosions and what not, but what she really wanted to avoid was any of the following: Crowns, keys, and anything having to do with the supernatural.

She didn't know why but drawing was something that she felt like she wanted to get better at. Namine had gave her some pointers on things like 'perspective' and the human anatomy.

After school she had another therapy session and just the thought of having to go there tomorrow made her let out a low groan.

She didn't need to sit down on some random chair and tell someone her life story- she just needed time. But how much time does she need to turn all of this around.

Having to go to school every day and receive those weird glares as a sign of disgust. The redhead could tell what was going through their heads: Emotionally damaged, crybaby, emo girl in the making- **psychopath**.

For a brief moment, some of the sunlight coming from the window was briefly obscured and this made Kairi leap up from out of her seat and called Dream-Weaver to her hands. With an upward motion of her left hand, the window came up and she flew out and landed on the roof to survey the area.

What caught her attention was a sparkle on the tree near her window.

'_Now what could that be?'_ Curiosity getting the better of her, the more she contemplated on it, the more she drew near it.

For some reason, when the object in question came into her view, she halted like a deer in the headlights and almost lost her flight concentration. To prevent herself from falling, Kairi had swiftly regained her focus and re-animated the mental aura around her, allowing her to take flight once again.

"Was that really...?" The scarlet-haired girl couldn't hesitate. She _had_ to be sure.

Centering her telekinetic focus on the tree, her mental grip had found the object and she pulled it down from there and simply made it float back to her.

...

Her heart had taken a plunge when it was clear that this star-shaped charm that she was holding in her hands was the exact same charm that she had given Sora- but what was it doing on that tree?

Scrutinizing it thoroughly, there were a few scratches embedded on it around the crown part in the center, but nothing too serious.

There was a sudden thieving gale that came by and slapped the wayfinder out of her hand and carried towards the house. Kairi turned in that direction and was about to race after it only to come to a sudden stop again when her heart skipped a beat.

There was a hooded yellow-eyed juvenile that stood on the roof with the wayfinder captured in his gloved hands.

Kairi couldn't believe what she was seeing- right now, she was questioning whether if this was reality or not. Sometimes when she would go to sleep, her dreams were sometimes haunted by Sora and the wayfinder. But the chafing of the wind to her face felt more than just wind, it felt like a message- a slap to the cheek that said: "Wake up! This _is_ real!"

As if almost robotic-ally, she hovered forward towards him. Normally, seeing those menacing yellow eyes and that ink-black skin would make her go into panic- but that was only in her dreams.

As she set foot on the edge of the roof, Dream-Weaver dispersed and her heart started beating even quicker. Droplets from a month of woe could be seen coming down from her blue gaze but she didn't care- _let them drop_.

The closer she got to him, the faster she walked until it transformed into a full on sprint, the tears coming down quicker and quicker until the two beloveds were united once again. Both didn't hesitate to wrap their arms around the other.

Sora stood and spoke comforting words into her ear as she poured out all of those bottled up feelings onto his chest. Just by contact, Kairi could feel the essence of darkness around him, the very feeling of him was cold, gloomy, and ominous. But soon this was replaced by a warmer, lighter feel.

She pulled back a bit to look up at him, seeing the black on his skin on his face dissipate as the fair tanned skin began to take back it's hold. Those mysterious golden eyes slowly vanished and were replaced with azure blue irises.

Sora gave her a smile while gently wiping the tears off her cheek. It was almost as if he was suddenly endowed with the gift of empathy when he saw those eyes of hers. They told a tale of grief and depression and it re-stated the obvious: She was hurting too.

Sanity was something that the both of them were running low on. But now that they're back in each others arms, who knows? They might just be able to help each other pick up the damaged pieces of emotion.

Kairi sniffled and gave him a saddened look, "I came back from the boat to look for you and... I know you didn't want me to be there but I-I couldn't just leave you."

He caressed her cheek and ran a hand though her crimson-colored hair. "I'm sorry I couldn't come back sooner...after I came back down I woke up in some facili-"

While he was providing his explanation, Kairi had already pulled his hood down and silenced him with an abrupt kiss. Days, weeks, months, for the moment, she didn't really give a damn. All that mattered now was that they were back together again and that was good enough for her.

Sora, at first, was temporarily paralyzed however he recovered splendidly and returned the kiss. Both of the lovers had reveled in reclaiming the familiar taste of the other's lips, the tastes of chocolate and cherry only encouraged the the two to kiss with even more passion.

As Kairi ran her hands through Sora's spiky brown hair, said boy had his hands traveling up and down her slender back.

All of a sudden, three knocks on Kairi's door below could be heard and this forced them to pull away.

"Kairi? You in there? Xion was wondering if you wanted to come hang out at the mall with everyone else." Aerith asked while opening the door. She saw Kairi laying down on her bed reading a book titled 'Hunger Games: Catching Fire.'

"Actually, I think I'll just stay here." Stating this, Kairi turned the page.

Even though she was sort of expecting this response, Aerith glowered for a moment but then grinned, "Hey, mom and dad are coming back from Europe tomorrow. They were hoping that they could see how you're doing and-"

Kairi scowled and closed the book with a distinct slam. "Oh so now they care..." She muttered.

The older sibling did quite catch that. "What?"

What was she muttering for? This was her chance to speak her mind, "I said: so now they care? Aerith, they're always off somewhere on their fancy business trips and almost never around us! Hell, they've been gone so many times that we've lost count!"

Aerith sighed and walked over to the bed, sitting on the side. "Iri, they do care about us it's just that their jobs require a lot of attention."

Kairi let out a low groan and fell back onto the bed, "More attention than to you, me, Nam, and Cloud? I get it, back when mom was in the Air Force and Dad was a designer, they both wanted to move on to bigger and better things- but couldn't we have at least co-existed with that? They think they can just come back into our lives and expect everything to be topsy turvy?"

"Remember when you wouldn't talk to anyone at school? Not even Namine? Tidus began talking to you and when he told you about how his mother died, you gave him a chance, so why not mom and dad?"

"..."

"Kairi, I'm not really sure about what's going on, but you should give them a chance." Came a male voice.

Aerith quickly span around and almost fell off the bed when she saw Sora standing there. What was this? A ghost from the past? She was at the funeral! He's supposed to be _dead! _**Dead!**

"OH MY GO-" Kairi put her hand over Aerith as she panicked and began pointing at Sora while trying to wiggle out of her grasp.

"Aerith- Aerith! Calm down! He's not a ghost! He's alive!" Kairi tried to explain this to her as best as she could but the vibrations she felt under her palm were tell-tale signs of screaming. She looked at Sora and gave him an odd look, "Why did you come in?"

"Hey, we can't keep the fact that I'm alive in the dark forever! We have to let SOMEBODY in on it!"

"Okay but-" The auburn felt something wet brushing against her hand and she quickly snatched it away, "Eww!"

Panting heavily, Aerith arose and tried to make sense out of this whole ordeal, "Okay, someone start explaining. NOW!" She pointed at Sora, "Especially you! Ghost, demon, I don't know what you are!"

Kairi and Sora both exchanged looks at each other, their expressions tell the both of them all they need to know.

Sora nodded and cast his gaze on the older female, "Okay, Aerith, I'll tell you everything from the beginning." He then looked at Kairi, "And I'm sure you still want an explanation on how I got here."

Both of the sisters nodded and sat on the bed while Sora retired to Kairi's desk chair and began his story about everything that has happened. Anti kidnapping Kairi, how he caused the Human-Heartless conflict, how he himself had to end it- _everything._

* * *

**-Hollow Bastion-**

Among the bustling streets of the vast urban area walked Axel, Roy, Zach and Ares. The green-eyed redhead with teardrops under his eyes was currently showing them around and pointing out some interesting landmarks and shops.

"This place is friggin' huge! How do you guys now get lost in this big of a city?" Roy asked, he was impressed by the futuristic look of the city, the way the lights shined and how lively the atmosphere was. Now _this_ was his kind of city.

"We only stick to a certain part of the city to stop stuff like that from happening." Axel explained while shoving his hands into his pockets. "Gramps doesn't want us venturing too far or we might have trouble finding our way back." As he was talking, he couldn't help but eye a light-armored APC which halted and unloaded a platoon of troops clad in kevlar from head-to-toe who began to sweep the area.

Roy looked past Axel and noticed what he was looking at, "Yo, what's with all the extra firepower?" This may have been a big city but where Roy was from, the cops were usually the ones out on patrol, not the Army. All four of the boys sat down at a nearby bench and watched them pass through the streets, the infantrymen pushing aside civilians who stood in their way. The mechanized infantry group came to a stop in front of some kind of small general store which was across the street from where they were sitting. Four men entered in while the others stood guard outside. A few moments later, a man that looked like the store owner came stumbling out of the store followed by the soldiers that went in.

"For the last time, I don't know anything!" The custodian pleaded as one of the men armed with an XM8 assault rifle approached him. His interrogator that gripped him by his shirt collar already had a disgruntled look on his face, it's best that he try not to anger the man that's currently packing lead.

"Don't lie! We heard from a reliable source that this store is being used as a weapons cache for the Dynami!"

Zach stopped munching on his hot-dog when the soldier had said that, "The Dy-who now?"

"The Dynami, they're this sort of rebel group that has been present in Hollow Bastion and other towns for a long time. Back then they were mostly just raiders, terrorists, and occasional riots but now, with all the refugees from the war coming here they are angry at the government for forcing them out of their homes."

"When they were forced out, they were promised that they would be given new places to live after the 'expansion' of the city. Of course, things expanded but did they get the homes they were promised? I'm pretty sure you know what the answer to that is...because of that, they're now waging guerrilla warfare against the Guardian Corps and because of that, there are zones of the city that are in ruins. It's rumored that the Dynami still roam them to this day."

"So it's the ol' 'Look at me, I have more money than this guy so I get to own this house first' routine?" After Zach had deduced this, they could see that the interrogation which was at first a simple questionnaire turned into a huge full out search as the corporal who was questioning the male had began rampaging through the store only to come back out and question the man again.

"I'm not going to ask again. Where. Are. The weapons?!"

A young boy who had the average height of an 11 year-old was helping his dad in the shop had came out and rushed in front of his father, trying to reason with the now pissed off rifleman, "Please! Don't take away my dad! He's innocent!" Begging for him to stop, the boy had gently tugged on his combat pants.

The soldier glared down at the lad and shoved him aside, "Get the hell off of me," He continued his interrogation with the father,"Talk you son of a bitch! Talk!" One of his comrades had put a hand on his shoulder.

"Dude, calm down, I think he's telling the truth." The private supplied while giving the boy a concerned look.

"I'm freakin' tired of this shit man! He knows! I can see it in his eyes!" Another member of the platoon, specifically the leader of the whole battle group, had given him a stern look.

"Corporal, I am ordering you to stand down-"

The man of mentioned rank snorted at this order and turned around to give his commanding officer a glare, "Stand down? Stand down?! What happened when Frankie stood down huh, LT? What, are you going to shoot me in the back like they did him? Huh?" He gave him a bit of a shove and pressed on, "HUH?!"

"Don't you go there." He said cryptically.

"What about Frankie?!" Ares balled his fists and let out a low growl as he watched the scene unfold. He had heard enough and he was going to put a stop to this immediately. As he rose up from the bench, Zach had suddenly zipped in front of him in protest.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, where do you think you're going big guy?" Even though his best to hold his ground, he could see Ares' angry expression by show of his mouth even though the hood of his hoody had somewhat concealed his eyes in shadow. Even though he could easily outrun the forces that would pursue them, Ares and the others couldn't and he would be damned if he was going to allow his 'brothers in prison-breaking' get screwed over by all this.

"He's right, chill out." Zach looked to Roy in surprise when he said that. Usually, he's the kind of person who wouldn't hesitate to jump into a large brawl like this and- "If anyone's throwing the first punch around here," A grin formed upon his lips as with a snap of his fingers, a spark of electricity formed in his fingers, "It's gonna be **me**!" Roy's sudden shout had directed some of the crowd's attention towards the boys and Axel and Zach panicked. With his quick thinking, the latter managed to grab Roy and speed him into a nearby alleyway before they could even get a glimpse of them.

Axel laughed sheepishly and tried to hold a mock conversation with Ares, "Me!...Who's going to win uh...first place in the singing contest!" When the crowd's odd looks had ceased, Axel gave Ares that 'it's not worth it' look, "The military has just been a little on edge since the whole Heartless thing, plus having to deal with the Dynami."

The seven-foot tall teen who looked to be of Native-American descent sneered as the soldiers calmed down and boarded their APC, "Look at them, they walk around here and convict men for their wrongdoings. They're searching for the wrong enemy. Rather than doing that, they harass the innocent and harm the helpless, who are only being used as human shields by these Dynami folk. Why doesn't your government just give them their homes and be done with it?"

Axel sighed and shook his head again, "It's not that easy, Ethan."

Ares couldn't help but smirk at the suggested name, "Ethan?"

"Like it? I figured that we can't keep calling you Ares forever, you need a name that sounds more...natural." Upon hearing Axel's offer, he had thought about it a bit.

Ethan. He smiled when he put that name in his mind. For some reason, he couldn't help but like the sound of it. It was such a simple and short name but he didn't really have a problem with it being short. It was a name that could be easily remembered. It was a name that he himself could remember.

"Ethan..." he smiled and nodded, "I like that name." Axel was glad to hear him say that because it actually wasn't him that came up with that but rather his grandfather, Merlin. Before they had left the house, he had pulled him to the side and told him to ask Ares about the name 'Ethan.' As a matter of fact, it was a very fitting name for him from what he was told. The definition of meaning behind the name was this: strong, firm, and impetuous. That was literally everything Ares was and more; Even though he didn't know much about himself and pretty much had the status of a nobody, he was still **strong **enough to go on and learn more about the world. And from what he had seen, he seemed to have a **firm **sense of justice. As far as being rash, Roy had him beat in that department by a bit but he would still sometimes act **impetuous** when someone tries to mess with him while he's sleeping (Zach getting punched in the nose comes to mind) or sometimes when he has a lot on his mind.

Roy had returned with Zach with a disgruntled look on his face, "This is stupid. We have these powers yet we can't even use em' to kick some ass!" Zach slapped his hand into his face after that talk they had previously had. Roy was just so damned eager to fight but why couldn't he understand the fact that if he goes on a rampage that they are all screwed? Honestly, it's like he _wants_ to be put in prison.

"Dude, we get it. You want attention, but for now could you _please_ just keep your voice down?"

"I was given a mouth and I intend to use it." Roy retorted while getting in Zach's face. He didn't know why, but for some reason ever since he had got thrown into that prison, being the next door neighbor to this guy had given him enough grief. Plus they really didn't see eye to eye.

"Does a mouth gag come with that package?" Zach sneered with a smirk. Roy had approached him with a look of annoyance and a bit of voltage fuming in his eyes. Sure, he had electricity going for him but he would like to see just how well he would fare against someone who could travel faster than the speed of sound.

"Fully working legs won't come with yours when I'm done with you!" He had returned this loudly with a distinct venom in his voice as he grasped onto the runner's collar and reeled back his now balled fist. Zach had only replied to the angry look with a chuckle. It was so easy to get this guy all riled up.

Not wanting a meta-powered brawl to break out cause at least two-blocks worth of damage, Axel got in-between the two and separated them, saying, "Hey, hey, hey, Roy just calm down. He's got a point, if you guys start doing anything crazy, you're going to get captured again and I'm pretty sure you don't want that now do you?" He turned around to Ethan, "Hey, Ares- I mean, Ethan, help me out here will-" the spot where Ethan had been once standing was blank, "ya?"

"Wow, great to know I'm not the only one who hate staying in one place for too long." Inquired Zach.

* * *

**-The Strife Mansion-**

Sora had finished relaying his story and he could see that by the look on Aerith's face while she massaged her temples, she didn't know whether to be outright terrified or completely angry at her little sister for not coming clean about this sooner. The time for disbelief of this whole story had disappeared when Aros and Anti had appeared and Kairi had called Dream Weaver to her hands as further evidence.

"...so let me get this straight, you two are supposed to represent Sora's light and darkness who were created because of some chemical accident which gave him superpowers?"

Aros nodded, "Yup. When we were created, Sora had gained magical powers and now Merlin is training him on how to use them. When we fuse with him, he gains access to those powers, the light focusing mainl on magic while the darkness focuses on brute strength and the more 'physical' side of things."

"Oh yeah, about that, do you guys ever get tired of staying fused with him?" When Kairi had asked this, they had thought about this for a second a shared a glance with each other before looking back at Kairi.

Aros shrugged, "Eh, sometimes. That's why I gave myself the name Aros. I was curious about what it was like living a normal life sooo... I decided why not just get out and see what's out there?"

Anti couldn't help but agree with him on that one, but rolled his eyes at his statement about a 'normal life', "From what I've seen it isn't so bad here either."

Now it was Aros' turn to roll his eyes, "Pfft, the only reason you like the world is because of it's many flaws. That's the only reason why you helped me and Sora, that city of yours just wasn't enough, was it?"

Leaping up onto the ceiling and sitting up there, Anti grimaced and decided to come clean, "You call em' flaws, I call em' enhancements. And yeah, sometimes it gets boring there too. Killing ghostly people isn't the same as killing real people. Everything was going great but I should have gutted that faggot when I had the chance. Heh, 'Reverse-Sora'. I don't really believe in reverse actually. What you call reverse, I call being unique and 110% bad-ass."

As everyone continued conversing, Sora stood near the window and watched the sun disappear behind the mountains. As he peered down at the street, he noticed a man, a woman, and two kids strolling down the sidewalk, the kids seemed happy as they walked hand-in-hand with their mother and father. Sora let out a low sigh and frowned at the memory their happiness gave him. Although his father wasn't there for him, he still had good life with his mom, Lightning, and Roxas. But he could only ask himself one thing: How did it all go so wrong so fast? At first he was excited about the whole thing: using his powers for good, helping the innocent, hell maybe even take on a superhero name. When he brandished that keyblade, he didn't expect to have so much hang in the balance because of it.

He felt a hand on shoulder and heard a familiar voice, "You're thinking about them, aren't you?" It didn't take using Dream-Weaver to read minds to figure that one out.

"Kai, since I've been gone, how are they doing?"

"Well, ever since your funeral it's hit everyone pretty hard, even Riku and Selphie and all of the Organization were there. Roxas is trying to stay strong for Lightning and your mom. He's told me that recently they've been arguing about things more than ever, your mom is still depressed about the whole thing-"

"What about Lightning?" Sending a subconscious message to Anti, he morphed into a little black ball and went directly into Sora's body. As his eyes flashed gold, he raised up the window once again.

"She's been...distant. Although she doesn't show it, deep down she is depressed as well," She noticed him hop up onto the window sill and grabbed him by his jacket before he could even jump out, "I'm coming with you." This was said in a serious tone, which caused Sora look back at her.

He could see the signs of worry on her face and turned to face her, gently caressing her cheek. When he had lifted that giant sphere up into space, he had wondered whether or not fate or whatever up there had control of his live would allow him to see those amazing crystal blue eyes once again, to be able to touch her warm, pale skin yet again. They were separated once- and he would be damned if he was going to let that ever happen again.

Giving her a reassuring smile, he took off his own crown necklace and put it around her neck, "You'll see me again." He pecked her on the lips, "That's a promise."

"Do you know where you're going?"

"I got Axel to write down your address and my mom's, too."

Kairi couldn't help but smirk at the mentioning of Axel, "I guess I owe him an apology."

"Really? For what?"

"Oh, nothing important."

He raised an eyebrow at her for only a moment but then he decided that he could be spared the mystery. He turned around and raced out the window, dashing across the branches of the nearby tree before hopping down and dashing through the lawn.

Kairi still watched him move across the street and onto the houses until he disappeared into the dead of the night. She smiled down at the crown necklace and cupped it in her hands gently as Aerith sat on the bed with a grin on her face. For once, it was great to see her little sister happy.

* * *

**-Meanwhile, in the city-**

In one of the many shopping centers in Hollow Bastion, people were talking about the latest things in terms of fashion and technology, most of the technology being from either Shinra Inc. or one of it's competitors: GalaxiaCorp and Abstergo Industires. A group of men were standing outside of a motorcycle store, gawking at the newly released Hardy-Daytona motorcycle. It's exterior was painted ink black, a beautiful sparkle coming from the outstanding design of the engine and placement of those exhaust pipes. The only thing that separated them from their love, which would satisfy their massive 'need for speed', was a glass barrier known as the display window.

One of the men was about to go in and by the bike when a tall boy suddenly barreled through him and his buddies, deliberately shoving all of them aside and hopping over a chain-linked fence that blocked the path to an alley way. Grunting, one of the bikers arose and groaned, "Who the hell do he think he is? Tom Cruise?"

Ethan wasn't sure whether or not he was going insane or if some higher mystical power was trying to communicate with him. When he had first cast his gaze on this man, he could see him looking at him from across the street, standing in the middle of the walking crowd. He couldn't see the full parts of though because he was clad in white garb with a hood which obscured his eyes from view, plus he had this ominous blue aura around him that added to his phantasmal appearance.

Now he was pursuing this man like a lion chases a gazelle. He had only began to walk after this man when he had stormed off. He wasn't going to let him get away, he wanted answers. Why was he the only one who could see him? Why did he run away when he put his gaze on him?

"Stop, I only want to talk to you!" He shouted this but by the looks of it, his words had fell on reluctant ears. The adult had already taken a sharp right. When Ethan had did the same, he noticed he was already climbing up a building by making clever use of the windows and fire escapes that were present.

Ethan had no time to be impressed by the amazing show of parkour skills being showed before him, with just a thought, his very fingers had been transformed into sharp, black talons. He then leaped up onto the wall of the edifice and began to scale it. He was only three stories behind him but eventually, he got up there where the stranger was already hopping over to the next adjacent building.

'This is ridiculous. How in the hell is he this fast?!' As this went through his thoughts, he went on to catch up with the man, as he followed him, he had almost slipped up once while trying to mantle over a sudden high wall which the man seemed to do with ease.

As the rooftop chase went on under the moon's gaze, the buildings that the two seemed to hop began to become diminished in quality and in height. Broken windows could be seen on some windows along with some openings in others that suggested some explosion had occurred. It wasn't long until the hooded man had reached the end of a long line of edifices and the only place to turn was to an old apartment building to his left as he made a jump toward one of the cracked windows, Ethan came crashing out of it, yelling, "This. Ends. NOW!" When he had finally caught the male he had been chasing for at least miles, he suddenly disappear and Ethan found himself tumbling across the roof until he rolled off and began his plunge towards the streets.

Seeing where he was going to land, he braced himself as slammed onto a wrecked car before rolling onto the ruined cement. As he lay there, he panted heavily as he examined his surroundings as his talons quickly shifted back into normal human hands.

In the streets, there was a whole mess of debris; papers were strewn out across the block and gaping cracks could be seen littered in the earth. Along with that, there were demolished buildings here and there, in particular there was a billboard that had had fallen from its respectful high perch. From what he could make out from the rubble on it, it was a recruitment ad for the Twilight Military.

Although he could feel his limbs regenerating from that long fall, he leaned against the blue car and cast his gaze up at the diamonds that were forming in the clear sky as the blue hour had arrived.

As a shooting star raced through the sky, he began thinking about all that has happened today, 'For as long as I have been out of that pod, I had met some good people, yet I had also witnessed some of the bad things that one human being can do to another.'

'There's so many diverse people here all with different views on why we were put on this earth. Some think that we were put on this world to accept the existence of one man who had died on a cross and that we should tell others about him and wait for his return, so that one day we will venture into this place called Heaven where we will live with him forever, and soon, this Earth will be destroyed and a new one will be created.'

'Others say that we were brought here by a sudden flash of light and that we were derived from apes…some of these things I find interesting to read upon but there is just one thing I want to find out for myself…'

'What is **my** purpose?'

* * *

**Well now, looks like Sora is going to visit his folks and now we're getting some character development for Are- I mean...ETHAN! What, did you really think that we were going to be calling him Ares for the rest of the story? Heck no! The least we could do is give this guy a proper first name**. ** While I'm still workingon kicking the Gary Sues out of my current OC's (don't worry ladies, there will be a female 'godess' added in soon. Remember? Artemis? Athena? Hera?), I'll make sure that they don't steal Sora's thunder as the main character. **

**Please give me some feedback guys! Constructive criticism is welcome! I want to see what you guys think of the story so far and if you think there's anything I need to improve on, please, speak up! :)**

**And sorry that this update came so late. I know, I'm a horrible, horrible person. T_T **

**Anyways stay safe and I'll update as soon as I can!**

* * *

**Up next...**

**Chapter 7: Ill Met By Moonlight**


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